Some relationships between sociopolitical ideology and moral character among college youth

Abstract

This report is intended to clarify the relationship, observed in studies using Kohlberg's moral character model, between the character of college youth and their ideology. With a student sample, measures of three of Hogan's dimensions of moral character (moral judgment, socialization, and empathy) were correlated with sociopolitical ideology defined in terms of several indices of liberalismconservatism. Only the moral judgment dimension (ethics of social responsibility vs. ethics of personal conscience) as measured by Hogan 's Survey of Ethical Attitudes was related to ideology. These results indicate that in accordance with an ethics of responsibility, conservatives have a greater respect for the utility of rules in regulating human conduct and a greater tendency to attribute blame to the individual rather than the societal environment. The study provided no evidence to support conservative charges that radical youth possess delinquent predispositions or liberal and radical claims that conservatives are less concerned about the welfare of others.