scholarly journals Moral foundations and voting intention in Italy

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 667-687 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrizia Milesi

Based on the view of morality proposed by the Moral Foundations Theory, this paper investigates whether voting intention is associated with moral foundation endorsement in not perfectly bipolar electoral contexts. Three studies carried out in Italy from 2010 to 2013, showed that controlling for ideological orientation, moral foundation endorsement is associated with voting intention. In Study 1 and 3, in fictitious and real national elections, intention to vote for right-wing political groups rather than for left-wing rivals was associated with Sanctity, confirming previous results obtained in the U.S. Furthermore, as a function of the specific competing political groups in each of the examined contexts other moral foundations predicted voting intention. In Study 1, Care and Authority predicted voting intention for the major political groups rather than for an autonomist party that aimed at decreasing central government’s fiscal power in favor of fiscal regional autonomy. In Study 3, Loyalty predicted the intention to vote for the major parliamentarian parties rather than for a movement that aimed at capturing disaffection towards traditional politics. In Study 2, at real regional elections, Loyalty predicted voting intention for the incumbent right-wing governor rather than for the challengers and Fairness predicted voting intention for left-wing extra-parliamentarian political groups rather than for the major left-wing party. Thus multiple moral concerns can be associated with voting intention. In fragmented and unstable electoral contexts, at each election the context of the competing political groups may elicit specific moral concerns that can contribute to affect voting intention beyond ideological orientation.

2020 ◽  
pp. 003329411989990
Author(s):  
Burcu Tekeş ◽  
E. Olcay Imamoğlu ◽  
Fatih Özdemir ◽  
Bengi Öner-Özkan

The aims of this study were to test: (a) the association of political orientations with morality orientations, specified by moral foundations theory, on a sample of young adults from Turkey, representing a collectivistic culture; and (b) the statistically mediating roles of needs for cognition and recognition in the links between political orientation and morality endorsements. According to the results (a) right-wing orientation and need for recognition were associated with all the three binding foundations (i.e., in-group/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity); (b) right-wing orientation was associated with binding foundations also indirectly via the role of need for recognition; (c) regarding individualizing foundations, left-wing orientation and need for cognition were associated with fairness/reciprocity, whereas only gender was associated with harm/care; and (d) left-wing orientation was associated with fairness dimension also indirectly via the role of need for cognition. The cultural relevance of moral foundations theory as well as the roles of needs for cognition and recognition are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Di Battista ◽  
Monica Pivetti ◽  
Annukka Vainio ◽  
Chiara Berti

Sacred values are moral foundations that may make public and political debates among groups hard to resolve. A taboo trade-off framework offers the opportunity of measuring the inviolability and the “sacralization” of moral foundations. In this study, moral foundations in a taboo trade-off framework were assessed in a convenience sample of Italians (N = 224) using a new measure to assess sacred values, the Omission as a Compromise on Moral Foundations scale (OC-MF). The OC-MF measures the willingness of individuals to omit moral foundations in exchange for money. It was predicted that Italian center and left-wing participants would be less willing to compromise individualizing moral foundations as opposed to binding ones, and that center and right-wing participants would be less willing to compromise on binding moral foundations than left-wing participants. Confirmatory Factor Analyses demonstrated the two-factor structure of the OC-MF: individualizing and binding. As predicted, Repeated Measures Anova showed that political orientation was related with differential adoptions of moral foundations as sacred values, with center and left-wing participants refusing to compromise more on individualizing than on binding moral foundations. Moreover, left-wing participants were more willing to compromise on binding moral foundations than center and right-wing participants. The OC-MF shows the hypothesized differences between Italian political groups and offers a new understanding of moral reasoning. These findings provide opportunities for improving ideological debates concerning sacred values.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-193
Author(s):  
O. A. Sychev ◽  
E. V. Zhikhareva

The paper features relations between extremist attitudes and moral sphere. The study was based on J. Haidt’s Moral Foundations Theory. Most researchers are interested in the problem of right-wing extremist attitudes, e.g. xenophobia, nationalism, religious fanaticism, authoritarianism, etc. However, the existing evidence of the link between such attitudes and some particularities of the moral sphere doesn't take into account modern psychological approaches toward moral. On the basis of moral foundations theory, the authors hypothesized that binding moral foundations may be linked with rightwing extremist attitudes. This hypothesis was tested on 397 university students (women – 83 %). The participants answered the Moral Foundations Questionnaire by J. Graham et al. and Young Men Extremist Attitudes Questionnaire by K. V. Zlokazov. The results of the correlation analysis showed that individualizing moral foundations (Harm and Fairness) were inversely correlated with right-wing extremist attitudes, while binding moral foundations (Loyalty and Authority) showed direct correlation. Such moral foundation as Sanctity showed contradictory correlations with extremist attitudes. Using structure linear modeling the authors demonstrated the significant impact of two moral foundations (Authority and Harm) on extremist attitudes. Authority was associated with a relatively high level of religious fanaticism, xenophobia, and authoritarianism. Care was associated with a low level of fanaticism, xenophobia, and nationalism. The obtained results proved that such violencecondemning values as care and harm avoidance oppose right-wing extremist attitudes. However, such values as respect for authorities and traditions may have potentially negative side effects, e.g. justification and support of right-wing extremist attitudes.


Author(s):  
Annemarie S. Walter ◽  
David P. Redlawsk

AbstractExisting empirical research on voters’ responses to individual politicians’ moral transgressions pays limited attention to moral emotions, although moral emotions are an integral part of voters’ moral judgment. This study looks at U.S. voters’ discrete moral emotional responses to politician’s moral violations and examines how these discrete moral emotional responses are dependent on voters’ own moral principles and the extent to which they identify with a political party. We report on a 5 × 3 between-subjects experiment where 2026 U.S. respondents reacted to politicians’ violations of one of five moral foundations defined by Moral Foundations Theory. We randomly vary which moral foundation is violated and the partisanship of the politician. While voters’ own moral principles somewhat condition moral emotional responses, we find that voters’ moral emotional responses mostly depend on partisan identification. When voters share party identity with a politician committing a moral violation, they respond with less anger, contempt, disgust and shame than when they do not share party identity. The effect is greater among strong partisans. However, we find limited evidence that specific moral emotions are activated by violations of particular moral foundations, thereby challenging Moral Foundations Theory.


Food Fights ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 162-186
Author(s):  
Sarah Ludington

From its founding, the U.S. government has promoted agriculture, and since the Great Depression, has directly supported farm incomes and crop prices. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs linked farm subsidies to food assistance for the poor, a politically successful combination then and now. Sarah Ludington describes how the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), through the Farm Bill, became responsible for school lunches, food stamps, and land conservation in addition to billions of dollars in subsidies for commodity crops like corn and cotton. Now a target for both the right wing and left wing of American politics, the Farm Bill continues to embody the tensions at the heart of American agriculture.


2020 ◽  
pp. 144-162
Author(s):  
Ronald F. Inglehart

Economic and physical insecurity encourage xenophobia, authoritarian politics, and rigid adherence to traditional norms. Throughout history human survival was usually insecure, and one successful strategy was to close ranks behind a strong leader. Recovery from the Nazi era took time, but by the 1970s a pro-democratic political culture had taken root in Germany, and by the 21st century Germany was ranked as more democratic than the U.S. In 2015, as desperate Syrian refugees poured into Europe, the German government opened the country’s borders to all asylum seekers, admitting almost a million new immigrants. But Germany’s immunity to xenophobic right-wing parties suddenly ended in the 2017 national elections, when the xenophobic Alternative for Germany became Germany’s third largest party. It seems that no country can absorb an unlimited influx of immigrants without triggering a xenophobic reaction, whose strength is shaped by the socioeconomic environment. In already diverse settings, significant inflows of newcomers may not seem threatening because people have grown up with diversity, making it seem normal.


Worldview ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 21-23
Author(s):  
Jeremiah Novak

For the past four years right-wing and left-wing organizations in the United States have been aware of a new foreign policy establishment known as the Trilateral Commission. This group, founded by David Rockefeller, is comprised largely of corporate executives from Western Europe, Japan, and the U.S. Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Cyrus Vance, as well as seventeen other members and former members of the Carter administration, belonged to this group before they took office. Key political figures in the governments of Japan and Western Europe also belong, as do John Anderson, George Bush, and Henry Kissinger.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Sterling ◽  
John T. Jost

Abstract We analyzed Twitter language to explore hypotheses derived from moral foundations theory, which suggests that liberals and conservatives prioritize different values. In Study 1, we captured 11 million tweets from nearly 25,000 U.S. residents and observed that liberals expressed fairness concerns more often than conservatives, whereas conservatives were more likely to express concerns about group loyalty, authority, and purity. Increasing political sophistication exacerbated ideological differences in authority and group loyalty. At low levels of sophistication, liberals used more harm language, but at high levels of sophistication conservatives referenced harm more often. In Study 2, we analyzed 59,000 tweets from 388 members of the U.S. Congress. Liberal legislators used more fairness- and harm-related words, whereas conservative legislators used more authority-related words. Unexpectedly, liberal legislators used more language pertaining to group loyalty and purity. Follow-up analyses suggest that liberals and conservatives in Congress use similar words to emphasize different policy priorities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-79
Author(s):  
Peter Kovačič Peršin

EDVARD KOCBEK'S 'REFLECTION' ON SPAINDue to the Spanish Civil War, the ideological conflicts in the Catholic circles became more distinct. The clerical part, particularly the Slovenecdaily, which published biased articles on the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and 1937 with a special emphasis on condemning the rise of the popular front, understood the publication of Edvard Kocbek's essay as an attack on its views. Kocbek's purpose behind the Ponderingwas, however, to present a more balanced picture of the Spanish tragedy that was based on the reports by West European writers who favoured the Spanish republic.The Ponderingwas the central crystallising point that led to the final split in the Catholic circles, while at the same time stirring the left-wing political groups to start fighting for a common goal. But the main reason that it became the central crystallising point was the militant response by the right-wing Catholic group; the essay in itself would have otherwise been only considered a balanced representation of the situation in Spain, which were presented one-sidedly by the clerical press. This shows that political tensions on the territory of today's Slovenia had already reached their climax as early as a few years before the war, thus rendering a dialogue and a democratic compromise that could unite the Slovenians in a national defensive attitude impossible.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-340
Author(s):  
Irina N Protasova ◽  
Oleg A Sychev

The article deals with the relation between ethnic tolerance and the moral sphere features on the basis of Moral Foundations Theory by J. Haidt. As a result of theoretical analysis we put forward a hypothesis that ethnic tolerance is entirely compatible with individualizing moral foundations (caring/not doing harm and fairness) but contradicts the binding moral foundations (loyalty, authority, sanctity). To test this hypothesis the research was carried out on a sample of 340 university students. The participants completed a questionnaire packet containing the “Tolerance index” questionnaire by G.U. Soldatova et al. and the “Moral foundations questionnaire” by J. Graham et al. The correlations between variables showed that ethnic tolerance was positively correlated with moral foundations ‘Care’ and ‘Fairness’ and negatively correlated with moral foundation ‘Authority’. Using path analysis we showed that ethnic tolerance is positively correlated with individualizing moral foundations and negatively correlated with binding moral foundations under the control of tolerance as a trait, gender and age. Our results also revealed unsatisfactory reliability of the “Social tolerance” scale of the “Tolerance index” questionnaire indicating the need for further investigation of the psychometric properties of this questionnaire. Our results support the hypothesis that ethnic tolerance is compatible with individualizing moral foundations, but contradicts the binding moral foundations. This fact demonstrates the moral inconsistencies of ethnic tolerance in the context of the individualizing and binding moral foundations.


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