Abstract
In the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic has become highly politicized and highly moralized. The current study explored whether participants’ (N = 118) endorsements of binding (promoting group cohesion) versus individualizing (promoting care for individuals) moral foundations explained partisan differences in views and behaviors regarding COVID-19. Participants completed the Moral Foundations Questionnaire before they indicated how morally permissible they thought it was to violate COVID-19 mandates, report others’ violations, or not get vaccinated. Additionally, they indicated their own prevention behaviors. Results show that endorsement of both individualizing and binding foundations explain partisan differences in moral permissibility ratings. Political conservatism predicted greater endorsement of binding foundations which in turn predicted seeing COVID-19 violations and not getting vaccinated as more morally permissible, and predicted fewer self-reported prevention behaviors. Endorsement of individualizing foundations predicted seeing violations as less morally permissible and reporting others’ violations as more morally permissible.
Highlights
In the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic has become highly politicized and highly moralized
Strong national identification has been a predictor of adherence to COVID-19 guidelines (Van Bavel et al, 2021), in the United States political affiliation is one of the strongest predictors of adherence to mitigation practices (Deane et al, 2021); that is, Republicans have been less likely to follow mandates than Democrats
Political conservatives have reported being less concerned about the threat of getting COVID-19 (Malloy and Schwartz, 2020; Conway et al, 2021), and less concerned about the threat it might have to the United States population (Deane et al, 2021)
Summary
In the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic has become highly politicized and highly moralized. Participants completed the Moral Foundations Questionnaire before they indicated how morally permissible they thought it was to violate COVID-19 mandates, report others’ violations, or not get vaccinated. Political conservatism predicted greater endorsement of binding foundations which in turn predicted seeing COVID-19 violations and not getting vaccinated as more morally permissible, and predicted fewer self-reported prevention behaviors. If a person chooses not to wear a mask indoors, social-distance from others, or get vaccinated, it could result in their family or friends choosing not to see them, or a business or venue not allowing them to enter These types of behaviors might elicit strong moral judgments from others. The five moral foundations have been shown to be stable across cultures (Dogruyol et al, 2019); a recent meta-analysis suggests that the relationship between politics and the endorsement of specific foundations may vary by context (Kivikangas et al, 2021)
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