Moral Foundations Questionnaire

Truth That Hurts...... Toni L.Vossen 2012

Moral Foundations

The scale you completed was the Moral Foundations Questionnaire, developed by Jesse Graham and Jonathan Haidt at the University of Virginia. The scale is a measure of your reliance on and endorsement of five psychological foundations of morality that seem to be found across cultures. Each of the two parts of the scale contained four questions related to each foundation: 1) harm/care, 2) fairness/reciprocity (including issues of rights), 3) ingroup/loyalty, 4) authority/respect, and 5) purity/sanctity. The idea behind the scale is that human morality is the result of biological and cultural evolutionary processes that made human beings very sensitive to many different (and often competing) issues. Some of these issues are about treating other individuals well (the first two foundations - harm and fairness). Other issues are about how to be a good member of a group or supporter of social order and tradition (the last three foundations). Haidt and Graham have found that political liberals generally place a higher value on the first two foundations; they are very concerned about issues of harm and fairness (including issues of inequality and exploitation). Political conservatives care about harm and fairness too, but they generally score slightly lower on those scale items. The big difference between liberals and conservatives seems to be that conservatives score slightly higher on the ingroup/loyalty foundation, and much higher on the authority/respect and purity/sanctity foundations. This difference seems to explain many of the most contentious issues in the culture war. For example, liberals support legalizing gay marriage (to be fair and compassionate), whereas many conservatives are reluctant to change the nature of marriage and the family, basic building blocks of society. Conservatives are more likely to favor practices that increase order and respect (e.g., spanking, mandatory pledge of allegiance), whereas liberals often oppose these practices as being violent or coercive. In the table below we summarize the meaning of each of the moral foundations and summarize your standing with respect to each of these domains. The graph that follows summarizes how your scores on each foundation compare with those of others who have taken this survey. Your Scores on the Moral Foundations Construct Your Score Fairness and Reciprocity The Fairness/Reciprocity foundation is reflective of basic human desires for justice and the fair compensation of actions. From an evolutionary standpoint, this fits with the concept of reciprocal altruism, in which humans help other humans with the expectation that such aid will be paid back in time. 6.00 Harm/Care The Harm/Care foundation gets at the human concern for nurturance and protecting vulnerable individuals from harm. This foundation matches with the evolution of empathy and the system of attachment, two instinctual human motivations designed to shield weaker persons from danger. 5.67 Ingroup Loyalty The Ingroup/Loyalty foundation relates to feelings of patriotism, self-sacrifice for the good of the group, and pride in such a group. This reflects the evolution of coalitional psychology, the desire to belong to and act in a collective, which in turn provided individuals with safety and security. 3.50 Authority/Respect The Authority/Respect foundation is made up of two parts: the virtue of subordinates (paying proper obedience and respect) and the virtue of authority (providing leadership and protection. This foundation fits with the evolution of hierarchy, which provided groups of humans with structure and stability. 4.33 Purity/Sanctity The Purity/Sanctity foundation pertains heavily to religious feeling and piety, as well as the desire to act in ways that are considered morally or physically clean. Such desires form from the evolution of disgust and fear of contamination (which helped protect the hygiene and health of early humans) as well as the suppression of human's selfish or carnal nature. 4.50 For more on-line personality, relationship, and political attitude tests, please visit yourPersonality.net This page was designed by R. Chris Fraley and Brian Griffin at the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois for educational purposes. If you have questions about this page, please feel free to e-mail us. Enable tooltip