Liberals and ConservativesRely on Different Sets of

Moral Foundations

Jesse Graham, Jonathan Haidt, and Brian A. Nosek

University of Virginia

Background

Shweder, R. A., Much, N. C., Mahapatra, M., & Park, L. (1997). The “big three” of morality (autonomy, community, and divinity), and the “big three” explanations of suffering. In A. Brandt & P. Rozin (Eds.), Morality and health ( pp. 119-169). New York: Routledge

• Most previous work done with undergraduate WEIRD populations

• Binding foundations previously focus of sources of immorality

Fiske, A. P. (1992). Four elementary forms of sociality: Framework for a unified theory of social relations. Psychological Review, 99, 689-723.

Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the content and the structure of values. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 25, pp. 1-65). New York: Academic Press.

Moral Foundations Theory• Shweder’s three ethics

o Ethic of autonomyo Ethic of communityo Ethic of divinity

• Fiske’s models of social relationshipso Equality matchingo Authority ranking

• Schwartz’s 10 value-typeso Social justiceo Protect environmento National securityo Obediento Clean

The Moral Foundations

Harm/care Fairness/reciprocity Ingroup/loyalty

Authority/respect Purity/sanctity

Study 1: Moral Relevance

Study 2: Moral Judgments

Study 3: Moral Trade-Offs

Study 4: Moral Texts

Harm/care Fairness/reciprocity Ingroup/loyalty

Authority/respect Purity/sanctity

Moral Foundations Hypothesis: “Political liberals construct their moral systems primarily upon two psychological foundations—Harm/care and Fairness/reciprocity—whereas political conservatives construct moral systems more evenly upon five psychological foundations”

Study 1: Moral Relevance

How relevant are various concerns when making moral judgments?

Prediction:Liberals: rate individualizing foundations as more

relevant than conservatives

Conservatives: rate binding foundations as more relevant than liberals

Study 1: Moral Relevance

MethodPolitical self-identification:

strongly liberal. . . .moderate. . . .strongly conservative

“When you decide whether something is right or wrong, to what extent are the following considerations relevant to your thinking?”

-high relevance ratings on “Whether or not someone believed in astrology” canceled participant

Study 1: Moral Relevance

Results

Moral Foundations Hypothesis: “Political liberals construct their moral systems primarily upon two psychological foundations—Harm/care and Fairness/reciprocity—whereas political conservatives construct moral systems more evenly upon five psychological foundations”

Study 1: Moral Relevance

Study 2: Moral Judgments

Study 3: Moral Trade-Offs

Study 4: Moral Texts

Harm/care Fairness/reciprocity Ingroup/loyalty

Authority/respect Purity/sanctity

✓

Study 2: Moral Judgments

Moral judgments based on implicit and explicit political identity

Prediction:Liberals: agree with judgments favoring individualizing

foundations more than conservatives

Conservatives: agree with judgments favoring binding foundations more than liberals

Study 2: Moral Judgments

MethodPolitical self-identification:

strongly liberal. . . .moderate. . . .strongly conservative

“When you decide whether something is right or wrong, to what extent are the following considerations relevant to your thinking?”

-high relevance ratings on “Whether or not someone believed in astrology” canceled participant

Study 2: Moral Judgments

Method

“To what extent do you agree with the following moral judgments?”

Study 2: Moral Judgments

Results

Moral Foundations Hypothesis: “Political liberals construct their moral systems primarily upon two psychological foundations—Harm/care and Fairness/reciprocity—whereas political conservatives construct moral systems more evenly upon five psychological foundations”

Study 1: Moral Relevance

Study 2: Moral Judgments

Study 3: Moral Trade-Offs

Study 4: Moral Texts

Harm/care Fairness/reciprocity Ingroup/loyalty

Authority/respect Purity/sanctity

✓✓

Study 3: Moral Trade-Offs

For what price would you violate your moral values?

Prediction:Liberals would be more willing than conservatives

to trade off binding foundations

Study 3: Moral Trade-Offs

MethodPolitical self-identification:

strongly liberal. . . .moderate. . . .strongly conservative

“Try to imagine actually doing the following things, and indicate how much money someone would have to pay you (anonymously and secretly) to be willing to do each thing. For each action, assume that nothing bad would happen to you afterwards. Also assume that you cannot use the money to make up for your action. If you prefer to thank about Euros or any other currency, please do. The exact amounts are not very important.”

$0 (for free), $10 , $100, $10,000, $100,000 , $1,000,000 , never

Study 3: Moral Trade-Offs

Method“Try to imagine actually doing the following things, and indicate how much money someone would have to pay you (anonymously and secretly) to be willing to do each thing.”

Study 3: Moral Trade-Offs

Results

Moral Foundations Hypothesis: “Political liberals construct their moral systems primarily upon two psychological foundations—Harm/care and Fairness/reciprocity—whereas political conservatives construct moral systems more evenly upon five psychological foundations”

Study 1: Moral Relevance

Study 2: Moral Judgments

Study 3: Moral Trade-Offs

Study 4: Moral Texts

Harm/care Fairness/reciprocity Ingroup/loyalty

Authority/respect Purity/sanctity

✓✓✓

Study 4: Moral Texts

Do particular moral foundations characterize sermons delivered to liberal communities and conservative communities?

Prediction:Liberals (Unitarian Universalist): greater emphasis

on individualizing foundations

Conservatives (Southern Baptist): greater emphasis on binding foundations

Study 4: Moral Texts

Method1. Identify liberal and conservative Christian denominations (liberal:

Unitarian Universalist ; conservative: Southern Baptist)2. Locate databases of sermons (text form)3. Create Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program dictionary:

- core concepts: harm and care, fairness and reciprocity, ingroup and loyalty, authority and respect, purity and sanctity- associations, synonyms, and antonyms (supporting and violating)

4. Count word frequencies in sermons5. Evaluate context

- 1 for support- -1 for negation- 0 for unclear or irrelevant

Study 4: Moral Texts

Results

Study 4: Moral Texts

Results

Moral Foundations Hypothesis: “Political liberals construct their moral systems primarily upon two psychological foundations—Harm/care and Fairness/reciprocity—whereas political conservatives construct moral systems more evenly upon five psychological foundations”

Study 1: Moral Relevance

Study 2: Moral Judgments

Study 3: Moral Trade-Offs

Study 4: Moral Texts

Harm/care Fairness/reciprocity Ingroup/loyalty

Authority/respect Purity/sanctity

✓✓✓

✓

Conclusion & Further Directions• All 4 studies supported the Moral Foundations Hypotheses• Liberal morality concerned primarily with care/harm and

fairness/reciprocity• Conservative morality concerned with all foundations evenly• Limitations

o Samples not representativeo Selection bias

• Further directionso Kinds of fairnesso Kinds of purity