Moral foundations and political orientation: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract

We investigate the findings that liberals and conservatives rely on different moral foundations. We conducted a comprehensive literature search from major databases and other sources for primary studies that used the Moral Foundations Questionnaire and a typical measure of political orientation, a political self-placement item. We used a predefined process for independent extraction of effect sizes by two authors and ran both study-level and individual-level analyses. With 89 samples, 605 effect sizes, and 33,804 independent participants, in addition to 192,870 participants from the widely used YourMorals.org website, the basic differences about conservatives and liberals are supported. However, heterogeneity is moderate, and the results may be less generalizable than previously thought. The effect sizes obtained from the YourMorals.org data appear inflated compared to independent samples, which is partly related political interest and may be due to selfselection. The association of moral foundations to political orientation varies culturally (between regions and countries) and subculturally (between White and Black respondents an in response to political interest, but not in relation to other demographics). The associations also differ depending on the choice of the social or economic dimension and its labeling, supporting both the bidimensional model of political orientation and the findings that the dimensions are often strongly correlated. Oue findings have implications for interpreting published studies, as well as designing new ones where the political aspect of morality is relevant. The results are primarily limited by the homogeneity of the measures and included studies in terms of sample origins. MORAL FOUNDATIONS AND POLITICAL ORIENTATION Meta-analysis on correlation studies (not experimental)

Moral Values Predict County-Level COVID-19 Vaccination Rates in the United States

“…That Fairness concerns predict higher demand for COVID-19 vaccinations is unsurprising: Reporting on the pandemic has repeatedly stressed the importance of protecting vulnerable groups (e.g., older or immunocompromised people) from infection and highlighted the disparate impact of COVID-19 on disadvantaged communities. That Loyalty concerns predict higher demand for COVID-19 vaccinations is, in some ways, surprising: After all, Loyalty concerns are consistently associated with political conservatism (Graham et al, 2009;Kivikangas et al, 2021) (Feinberg & Willer, 2019).…”

“…Since political ideology is related to both COVID-19 vaccination rates (Agarwal et al, 2021) and moral values (Kivikangas et al, 2021), we controlled for the role of political ideology in our statistical models. We collected data from presidential elections in the U.S. (MIT Election Data and Science Lab, 2018) and calculated a county-level conservatism index by subtracting the votes for the Democratic party from the votes for the Republican party and dividing that quantity by the total votes (including for the Green party) in that county across the 2000-2020 presidential elections.…”

Pathogens Are Linked to Human Moral Systems Across Time and Space

“…Political Ideology. Since political ideology is related to both pathogen avoidance (Tybur et al, 2016) and moral values (Graham et al, 2009;Kivikangas et al, 2021), we controlled for the role of political ideology in our statistical models. We collected data from presidential elections in the U.S. (MIT Election Data and Science Lab, 2018) and calculated a county-level conservatism index by subtracting the voters for the Democratic party from the Republican party and dividing that by the total voters (including for the Green party) in that county.…”

When Moral Tension Begets Cognitive Dissonance: An Investigation of Responses to Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior and the Contingent Effect of Construal Level

“…We argue that due to its immoral nature, UPB might be considered as a counter-attitudinal behavior that triggers cognitive dissonance. Despite its proorganizational intent, UPB running counter to universally identified moral concerns about being caring and just (Gilligan, 1982;Kivikangas et al, 2021;Kohlberg, 1971;Weaver et al, 2014). Specifically, UPB involves acts of commission and omission.…”

“…Given the higher value that societies place on hypernorms than organizational norms, most people use hypernorms as a primary source of individual-level ethical evaluation (Bailey & Spicer, 2007). Therefore, our theoretical premise hinges on that most people would experience cognitive dissonance after engaging in UPB because doing so jeopardizes the universally identified moral concerns about being caring and just derived from hypernorms (Gilligan, 1982;Kivikangas et al, 2021;Kohlberg, 1971). Nonetheless, this theoretical assumption necessitates further empirical validations, especially with employees who are generally at the low level of internalized moral identity initially because they might be less likely to attend to their moral self-regard (Monin & Jordan, 2009;Schaumberg & Wiltermuth, 2014).…”