Clarifying Measurement Issues With the Purity Subscale of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire in Christian and Nonreligious Participants

Abstract

The moral foundation of Purity plays a prominent role in moral psychology. Previous studies have identified measurement issues with the standard operationalization of Purity (the Moral Foundations Questionnaire; MFQ) when comparing religious and nonreligious samples. The cause(s) and implications of such issues remain understudied. As the methodological backbone of much moral psychology research, the MFQ’s Purity subscale warrants further attention. In four samples (total N = 8,005), we identify measurement problems traceable to a single problematic item serving as a proxy for religious identification. Conservative estimates of the bias introduced by this item suggest that an average nonreligious participant’s Purity score are underestimated by at least 0.2 standard deviations, compared with an average Christian. Given Purity’s centrality to moral psychology, this bias may have influenced many findings. We offer recommendations for new and existing studies to avoid this bias at little cost. Data and analysis code are available at https://osf.io/ek98n/ .