Cultural Differences in Moral Judgment Competence? A Study of West and East European University Students

Abstract

The Moralisches Urteil Test (MUT) has been developed to measure simultaneously people's preferences for moral arguments and their competence to apply self-accepted moral reasons in a consistent and differentiated manner to moral dilemmas. In two studies, large samples of (1) university students from West Germany, and (2) university students from Austria, West Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and Yugoslavia were exposed to the MUT. East European and West European students exhibited the same preference order for Kohlberg's six moral stages. These results strongly support Kohlberg's claims for the universality of moral principles. While gender and field of study did not systematically influence moral judgment competence, students from the five countries differed markedly in their ability to consistently apply moral principles to an euthanasia dilemma. Future research will investigate some of the possible origins of these cross- cultural differences.