Politics, moral reasoning and the Defining Issues Test: a reply to Barnett et al. (1995)

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Political Science
• Moral Development

Background:

• Research links political orientation to moral reasoning stages: Right-leaning individuals prefer conventional (Stage 4), while Left-leaning individuals prefer principled (Stage 5).
• Two interpretations exist: moral reasoning development shapes political views, or reasoning stages represent distinct politico-moral ideologies aligning with political identity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between political identity and moral reasoning preferences.
• To test whether moral reasoning stages reflect distinct political ideologies or developmental levels.

Main Methods:

• Four studies were conducted involving participants rating moral arguments, role-playing political parties selecting candidates, and manipulating political identity salience.
• Methods included assessing perceived relevance of moral arguments, candidate evaluations based on moral reasoning, and correlations between moral reasoning and political attitudes under different identity salience conditions.

Main Results:

• Conventional (Stage 4) moral reasoning preference is influenced by political identity.
• Principled (Stage 5) moral reasoning appears unrelated to political orientation.
• Political identity salience significantly correlated moral reasoning scores with political attitudes.

Conclusions:

• Political identity influences conventional moral reasoning, but not necessarily principled reasoning.
• The study suggests that conventional and principled reasoning may not represent successive developmental stages.
• Preference for different moral reasoning forms might be independent of political orientation and developmental progression.