Social attitudes and the availability of moral knowledge structures

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that people with conservative social attitudes tend to make less use of principled moral arguments. Emler (1983; Morality in the making. Chichester: Wiley) has argued that this is a matter of choice, or political ideology, rather than cognitive deficiency, since people with conservative attitudes do selectively endorse principled moral arguments when asked to role-play someone with liberal social attitudes. Following Thornton and Thornton's (1983; Morality in the making. Chichester: Wiley) identification of methodological difficulties with Emler's role-playing task, the present study investigated the same issue using a rather more direct measure of the ability to understand principled moral ideas. Results indicate that people who fail to understand principled moral ideas tend to hold unusually conservative social attitudes.