The illusion of moral decline.

ABSTRACT: Anecdotal evidence indicates that people believe that morality is declining^1,2. In a series of studies using both archival and original data (n = 12,492,983), we show that people in at least 60 nations around the world believe that morality is declining, that they have believed this for at least 70 years and that they attribute this decline both to the decreasing morality of individuals as they age and to the decreasing morality of successive generations. Next, we show that people's reports of the morality of their contemporaries have not declined over time, suggesting that the perception of moral decline is an illusion. Finally, we show how a simple mechanism based on two well-established psychological phenomena (biased exposure to information and biased memory for information)

SUBMITTER: Mastroianni AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10284688 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature