What Makes it Moral? Measuring Objectivity in Moral and Non-Moral Attitudes Ciara K. Kidder* &...
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Transcript of What Makes it Moral? Measuring Objectivity in Moral and Non-Moral Attitudes Ciara K. Kidder* &...
What Makes it Moral? Measuring Objectivity in Moral and Non-Moral AttitudesCiara K. Kidder* & Stephen L. Crites, Jr.
University of Texas at El Paso
METHOD
Pre-screen• Participants completed an online survey measuring morality
and attitudes towards 17 social issues.• Moral conviction (MC), attitude valence, and attitude
strength were recorded for each issues• Issues were categorized as moral if MC ≥ 20• Issues were categorized as non-moral if MC ≤ 12• Participants were required to hold three moral and three
non-moral attitudes to complete the experiment.
Participants: • 73 (52 Female) recruited from eligible pre-screen participants• Average age = 21• Similar to local population, 74% identified as Hispanic, 55% reported Catholic affiliation, and average “slightly liberal” political affiliation
Measures: • Attitude, Attitude Importance, and Attitude Certainty were measured (see supplement for complete descriptions of measures)• Idiosyncratic IATs consisted of practice blocks with fact or opinion categorizations and moral and non-moral categorization. Critical blocks consisted of mixed stimuli. *
*participants also completed an IAT to measure the association between morality and universality. Results were non-significant.
INTRODUCTION
Defining Moral Attitudes• Characterized by strong convictions related to core
beliefs and vary across individuals and cultures [1]• Proposed as theoretically and behaviorally different
from non-moral attitudes
• Behavioral• Preference for greater physical and social distance
from attitudinally dissimilar others [2]• In group settings, conflict resolution decreases when
the issue is morally dividing
• Theoretical• Morality leads to greater sense of universality; belief
that one’s moral stance should apply to everyone, regardless of location or culture [1]
• Morality leads to greater sense of objectivity; my belief is true [4,5]
• Morality is more affectively based; violations of morals leads to more intense emotion [5,6]
Current Study & HypothesesThe goal of the current study is to use an IAT
to measure associations between attitudes and objectivity.
H1. There will be a congruity effect with faster reaction times for expected associations (e.g., fact/moral) than for unexpected associations (e.g., fact/non-moral).
H2. Morality will impact the congruity effect such that differences between expected associations and unexpected associations would be greater when making judgments about moral attitudes.
REFERENCES
1.Skitka, Linda J. (2010). The psychology of moral conviction. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4(4), 267–281. doi:10.111/j.1751-9004.2010.00254.x2.Skitka, L. J., Bauman, C. W., & Sargis, E. G. (2005). Moral conviction: Another contributor to attitude strength or something more? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 895–917. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.8953.Skitka, L. J., Bauman, C. W., & Lytle, B. L. (2009). Limits on legitimacy: Moral and religious convictions as constraints on deference to authority. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(4), 567–578. doi:10.1037/a0015998.4.Goodwin, G. P., & Darley, J. M. (2008). The psychology of meta-ethics: Exploring objectivism. Cognition, 106, 1339–1366. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.06.0075.Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814–834. doi:10.1037//0033-295X.108.4.8146.Haidt, J. (2003). The moral emotions. In R. J. Davidson, K. R. Scherer, & H. H. Goldsmith (Eds.), Handbook of affective sciences (pp. 852–870). New York, New York: Oxford University Press.
RESULTS
H1- Congruity Effect: • Calculated the effect using the D600 Algorithm • Significant association between objectivity and morality, D = 0.225, SD = 0.478, 95% CI = 0.106, 0.343. • The Fact/Moral and Opinion/Non-Moral block (M =
1064ms, SD = 357ms) had faster reaction times than the Fact/Non-Moral and Opinion/Moral block (M = 1166ms, SD = 363ms), Mdifference = 101ms, SD = 298ms.
H2- Morality Effects: • Tested using a 2x2x2 Mixed ANOVA examining congruity, morality, and block order. The dependent variable was RT. • No significant effects of morality. • Moral stimuli (M = 1155ms, SD = 406ms) were categorized
equally as fast as non-moral stimuli (M = 1152ms, SD = 423ms), F(1,63) = 0.004, p = 0.951).
• No significant congruity by morality interaction, F(2,63) = 0.264, p = 0.609
DISCUSSION
• Objectivity is more associated with moral than non-moral attitudes•IAT can be used with complex stimuli
Limitations and Future Directions: •Follow-up study confirmed association of objectivity and morality•Examine this association under other paradigms such as sequential priming
Poster presented at the 16th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. *Author contact: [email protected]