Relativism or tolerance? Defining, assessing, connecting, and distinguishing two moral personality features with prominent roles in modern societies

Abstract

Objective This work disentangles moral tolerance from moral relativism and reveals their distinct personological meanings. Both constructs have long been of interest to moral philosophers, moral psychologists, and everyday people, and they may play prominent roles in the feasibility of modern diverse societies. However, they have been criticized as devaluing morality and as producing overly permissive societies. Moreover, although they lack necessary conceptual implications for each other, they are easily (and often) conflated. Method Three studies included nine samples (total N > 3,200, 40%–50% female, Mage = 38–40, 83% white). Participants completed (online) new measures of moral tolerance and moral relativism, along with measures of 40 additional constructs. Results Results reveal robust psychometric quality of the new measures (the Moral Relativism Scale and the Moral Tolerance Scale), demonstrate that the constructs are empirically overlapping but separable, and highlight their distinct personological networks. Moral relativism was associated with liberal political views and a lowered valuing/enacting of moral values. Moral tolerance was weakly associated with liberal political views but was strongly related to a broad range of both liberal and conservative moral values. Conclusion This work yields new tools for investigating moral character, and it reveals the differential meaning of two important moral constructs.

Does impartial altruism incur costs in close relationships?

“…Participants then completed a battery of moral belief questionnaires, which included: the Moral Relativism Scale, Moral Tolerance Scale (MRS, MTS) 49 and the Oxford Utilitarianism Scale (OUS) 29 . These scales assessed explicit moral beliefs in order to evaluate the role of normative moral beliefs in impartial altruism.…”

Consensus, controversy, and chaos in the attribution of characteristics to the morally exceptional

“…The 10‐item Moral Relativism Scale (Collier‐Spruel et al, 2019), assesses the degree to which people believe moral standards are objective across people and cultures (e.g., “an action is only morally wrong if a person believes it is morally wrong”). This measure used a 1–5 scale (1— Strongly Disagree to 5— Strongly Agree ).…”

Critical Analysis of the Prevailing Worldviews and Value Systems in Relation to How They Are Shaped by Culture and Identity

“…Cultural relativism or DMR contends that culture is the determinant of the veracity of moral standards (Collier-Spruel et al, 2019). In particular, this thinking holds that though several values such as respect and honesty appear to be universal, people have different views about things like culture, religion, and morality.…”

“…The meta-ethical relativism insists that ethics is proportional to the standards of one's culture; hence, it is not justifiable to uphold the ethical standards of one society over those of another community (Collier-Spruel et al, 2019). Here, moral choices are made by communities based on their unique practices, beliefs as well as customs.…”