LABELLE, FL. -- A new book, "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics And Religion" says people's morality values vary across cultures and political parties and suggests there are certain "moral foundations" to which all people adhere to a lessor or greater extent.
By taking a questionnaire developed by social psychologists from the University of Virginia, one can see how his or her sense of conservative or liberal values compares to others.
A book by University of Virginia Associate Professor of Psychology Jonathan Heidt says political liberals subscribe to a great sense of fairness and caring the same as political conservatives, but conservatives also care much more about loyalty to the group, and deference to authority with respect for traditions.
Heidt has found a number of "moral foundations" believed to be innate and universal across all people that guide individual and group behaviors and opinions.
Heidt and other social and cultural psychologists, trying to understand why morality varies so much across cultures, created what they call a Moral Foundations Theory from their studies. What they found, helps explain why moral values vary so tremendously in people around the world, and between political parties, yet exhibit so many similarities.
Heidt says, "The current American culture war, we have found, can be seen as arising from the fact that liberals try to create a morality relying primarily on the Care/harm foundation, with additional support from the Fairness/cheating and Liberty/oppression foundations. Conservatives, especially religious conservatives, use all six foundations, including Loyatly/betrayal, Authority/subversion, and Sanctity/degradation."
You can test your own "moral foundations" profiles, and compare them to liberal and conservative views by taking a Morality questionnaire for Southwest Florida Online readers at www.YourMorals.org.
(After filling out the brief questions to register, scroll down the questionnaire page to do the "Moral Foundations" questionnaire first, it's the second quiz on the list. Feel free to try many of the other questionnaires as well. )
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A book by University of Virginia Associate Professor of Psychology Jonathan Heidt says political liberals subscribe to a great sense of fairness and caring the same as political conservatives, but conservatives also care much more about loyalty to the group, and deference to authority with respect for traditions.
Heidt has found a number of "moral foundations" believed to be innate and universal across all people that guide individual and group behaviors and opinions.
Heidt and other social and cultural psychologists, trying to understand why morality varies so much across cultures, created what they call a Moral Foundations Theory from their studies. What they found, helps explain why moral values vary so tremendously in people around the world, and between political parties, yet exhibit so many similarities.
Heidt says, "The current American culture war, we have found, can be seen as arising from the fact that liberals try to create a morality relying primarily on the Care/harm foundation, with additional support from the Fairness/cheating and Liberty/oppression foundations. Conservatives, especially religious conservatives, use all six foundations, including Loyatly/betrayal, Authority/subversion, and Sanctity/degradation."
You can test your own "moral foundations" profiles, and compare them to liberal and conservative views by taking a Morality questionnaire for Southwest Florida Online readers at www.YourMorals.org.
(After filling out the brief questions to register, scroll down the questionnaire page to do the "Moral Foundations" questionnaire first, it's the second quiz on the list. Feel free to try many of the other questionnaires as well. )
Buy From Amazon.com:
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