Anxious and Avoidant Attachment to God Predict Moral Foundations beyond Adult Attachment

Abstract

Van IJzendoorn and Zwart-Woudstra (1995) and Shaver and Mikulincer (2012) have proposed that adult attachment patterns are related to moral decision-making. We explore the relationship between attachment to God (ATG) and the 5 moral foundations proposed by Haidt and Graham (2007)—care/harm, fairness/reciprocity, ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity. Data from 306 adult subjects, who completed measures of adult attachment, ATG, and the 5 moral foundations, were collected online. Results revealed that attachment to God accounted for significant levels of variability in all 5 foundations above and beyond the variability accounted for by adult romantic and best friend attachment. ATG avoidance was negatively related to the care, fairness, authority, and purity foundations, while ATG anxiety was positively related to the in-group loyalty and authority foundations. Our results suggest that those with insecure attachment patterns—in this case regarding God as an attachment figure—have different moral foundation profiles.