Where does moral conviction fit?: A factor analytic approach examining antecedents to attitude strength

Abstract

Research and theory has suggested that moral conviction is distinct from other attitude strength antecedents. Yet, many attitude features conceptually overlap with features considered definitional to moral conviction. In order to place moral conviction within the broader landscape of attitude properties, we examined the factor analytic structure of a set of attitude strength antecedents that seemed conceptually related to moral basis. Participants reported attitudes toward the topic of GMOs (Study 1) or toward a topic they identified as important to them (Studies 2–6) and various subjective properties of their attitudes. We also examined the ability of each attitude feature to predict advocacy intentions (Studies 3–6). In Studies 1–3, exploratory factor analyses revealed that the various strength antecedents reflected a two-factor structure that differentiated properties relating to an attitude's embeddedness in one's core values from properties reflecting a consistency or entrenchment in an attitude. In Studies 4–6, confirmatory factor analyses determined that, in addition to the over-arching two-factor structure, including “minor factors” reflecting each attitude property further improved model fit. We therefore propose a hybrid model, wherein the various attitude properties form an over-arching two-factor structure in which each major factor includes additional “minor” constructs. Across studies, moral basis loaded highly on an embeddedness factor along with values basis (all studies), importance (Studies 4–6), affective and cognitive meta-bases (Studies 5–6), centrality, and extremity (Study 6). The consistency factor was composed of subjective ambivalence (all studies), correctness, clarity (Studies 1–4), attitude-relevant knowledge (Studies 4–6), and certainty (Studies 5–6). Embeddedness and consistency (as latent variables) each independently predicted advocacy intentions. These findings provide insight into how moral basis relates to a broad set of attitude features and has implications for how future work might define moral conviction.