The Moral Compass of Insecurity

Abstract

Three studies examined the associations between relational adult attachment and moral judgment. Study 1 shows that attachment-related anxiety and avoidance are uniquely and differentially related to moral concerns. Relative to low insecurity, higher avoidance was associated with weaker moral concerns about harm and unfairness, whereas higher anxiety was associated with stronger moral concerns about harm, unfairness, and impurity. Study 2 replicates these associations and shows that the effect for harm and fairness is mediated by attachment differences in empathic concern, whereas the effect for purity is mediated by disgust sensitivity. Furthermore, using an alternative measure of moral judgment we replicate the negative association between avoidance and harm concerns. Study 3 unpacks fairness judgments into three subcomponents and shows that even at this level avoidance and anxiety show divergent associations. Future directions for empirical examinations of morality and attachment are discussed.