Measurement Invariance of Moral Foundations across Population Strata

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Moral Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Moral Foundations Theory posits universal moral intuitions (care, fairness, loyalty, authority, purity).
• Recent work suggests liberty is a distinct moral foundation.
• Cross-cultural and cross-group comparisons require measurement invariance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the measurement invariance of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) and a liberty intuitions measure.
• To assess invariance across diverse demographic and ideological groups in a Swedish adult sample.
• To compare the invariance properties of various MFQ structural models.

Main Methods:

• A representative sample of 2282 Swedish adults completed the MFQ.
• A subset of 607 participants also completed a liberty intuitions measure.
• Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses were used to test measurement invariance across sex, age, education, income, political orientation, religiosity, and party preference.

Main Results:

• Generally acceptable configural, metric, and scalar invariance were found for most comparisons, especially with more complex models.
• Exceptions included configural non-invariance for very low education/income groups.
• Scalar non-invariance was observed for ideological groups with simpler models, but the eight-factor model, differentiating lifestyle and government liberty, demonstrated better invariance.

Conclusions:

• The MFQ and liberty measure demonstrate good measurement invariance across most demographic groups in Sweden.
• The eight-factor model offers superior invariance for distinguishing types of liberty across ideological divides.
• Findings support the use of these measures for cross-group comparisons in moral psychology research.