I'd have to look into it more than I'm inclined to to say for sure, but "excess" only has to imply more than is required for some purpose. I could imagine coming up with definitions that aren't moral exactly, but are meant to gauge moral intuitions.

"Excessive poverty" seems like it would be fraught with smuggled in assumptions.

Undisciplined

BooksAndArticles

The immorality of too much money

0xbitcoiner

Interesting.  @Undisciplined would probably critique this by saying that the word "excessive" inherently implies a judgment of immorality.

I wonder why the study didn't also study "excessive poverty".  I would think that most people have a greater moral problem with having too many people in excessive poverty than having too many people with excessive wealth.