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

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Political Psychology
• Computational Social Science

Background:

• Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) posits differing moral values between liberals and conservatives.
• Previous research often analyzes moral values individually, not as interconnected systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test MFT's claims about differing moral systems using network psychometrics.
• To investigate the network structure of moral beliefs in liberals and conservatives.

Main Methods:

• Network psychometrics was employed to model moral belief systems as networks.
• Three large datasets from the United States and New Zealand were analyzed.
• Nodes represented moral beliefs, and edges represented direct relations between them.

Main Results:

• Liberals' moral systems exhibited greater segregation between individualizing and binding moral foundations compared to conservatives.
• Weak support was found for the hypothesis that higher education amplifies these differences.
• The study successfully modeled moral belief systems as interconnected networks.

Conclusions:

• Findings support a network-based, systems approach to understanding Moral Foundations Theory.
• Network psychometrics offers a valuable tool for mapping complex moral belief systems.
• Distinct network structures in moral cognition may underlie political divides.