The distinction between moral judgment development and verbal ability: some relevant data using socio‐political outcome variables

Abstract

Critics of moral judgment measures question whether the obtained pattern of relationships between moral judgment scores and outcome variables might be better explained by verbal/general ability. To address this concern, we assess the degree to which moral judgment development reduces to verbal ability using the Defining Issues Test (DIT). Our findings suggest that DIT scores describe a latent variable that is distinct from verbal ability. Second, we show that verbal ability cannot account for the relationship between moral judgments and social political attitudes and actions. These results are consistent with the developmental view that moral judgment development scores are related to, but do not reduce to, cognitive and ability measures.