Political double standards in reliance on moral foundations

Journal Title: Judgment and Decision Making - Year 2019, Vol 14, Issue 4

Abstract

Prior research using the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) has established that political ideology is associated with self-reported reliance on specific moral foundations in moral judgments of acts. MFQ items do not specify the agents involved in the acts, however. By specifying agents in MFQ items we revealed blatant political double standards. Conservatives thought that the same moral foundation was more relevant if victims were agents that they like (i.e., corporations and other conservatives) but less relevant when the same agents were perpetrators. Liberals showed the same pattern for agents that they like (i.e., news media and other liberals). A UK sample showed much weaker political double standards with respect to corporations and news media, consistent with feelings about corporations and news media being much less politicized in the UK than in the US. We discuss the implications for moral foundations theory.

Authors and Affiliations

Kimmo Eriksson, Brent Simpson and Pontus Strimling

Keywords

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  • EP ID EP678429
  • DOI -
  • Views 148
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How To Cite

Kimmo Eriksson, Brent Simpson and Pontus Strimling (2019). Political double standards in reliance on moral foundations. Judgment and Decision Making, 14(4), -. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-678429