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Highlights: [•] We examined whether moral concerns shape awareness of ambiguous stimuli. [•] Participants saw moral and non-moral words in a lexical decision task. [•] Moral and non-moral words were matched on length, and frequency in lexicon. [•] Participants correctly identified moral words more frequently than non-moral words. [•] This experiments suggest that moral values may shape perceptual awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on emerging research, we propose that human perception is preferentially attuned to moral content. We describe how moral concerns enhance detection of morally relevant stimuli, and both command and direct attention. These perceptual processes, in turn, have important consequences for moral judgment and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]