Conservatives' Moral Foundations Are More Densely Connected Than Liberals' Moral Foundations.

ABSTRACT: We use network psychometrics to map a subsection of moral belief systems predicted by moral foundations theory (MFT). This approach conceptualizes moral systems as networks, with moral beliefs represented as nodes connected by direct relations. As such, it advances a novel test of MFT's claim that liberals and conservatives have different systems of foundational moral values, which we test in three large datasets (N_Sample1 = 854; N_Sample2 = 679; N_Sample3 = 2,572), from two countries (the United States and New Zealand). Results supported our first hypothesis that liberals' moral systems show more segregation between individualizing and binding foundations than conservatives. Results showed only weak support for our second hypothesis, tha

SUBMITTER: Turner-Zwinkels FM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8164548 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature