Moral Convictions Research Articles

Ein gutes Gewissen ist ein sanftes Ruhekissen... Bemerkungen über Phraseologismen mit dem Potenzial zum ethischen Bewerten

This article examines the linguistic expression of moral values in selectedGerman phrasemes which have the potential for formulating judgements concerning humanattitudes based on ethical criteria. An attempt was made to identify factors affecting therobustness of that potential, the ways in which that potential is manifested, and the type ofrelationships between the analyzed phrasemes and moral values. The moral convictions oflanguage users that are embedded in the German language were also analyzed. The studydemonstrated that in colloquial German, morality is portrayed in an intellectual and emotivecontext as the essence of subjective human experience. Linguistic data confirm that moralnorms are perceived by language users as an objective truth that should be respected. Thepotential of phrasemes for passing ethical judgements stems from the relationship betweenphrasemes and their characteristic formal attributes, including their figurative and expressivemeaning. This potential is manifested explicitly or implicitly, and its perlocutionary strength isoften determined by the metaphorical motivation of a given phraseme. The analysis confirmedthat the potential of phrasemes is also influenced by the connotative dimension of the lexicon n specific phrasemes. In the most general and broadest sense, the potential of phrasemes forformulating ethical judgements about human attitudes is conditioned by the anthropocentricinterpretation of reality. The study revealed that phrasemes with a potential for making ethicaljudgements are bound by three types of relationships with morality: they should be regarded asa tool for assessing human attitudes, as a source of knowledge about moral values preferred by language users, and as carriers of moral values that are co-responsible for embedding thesevalues in collective memory. The results of this study have practical implications for researchin axiological linguistics and applied ethics.

In the Trap of Tradition. Analysis of Ethical Arguments in the Discussion on Sport Game Hunting in Polish and British Culture

The article contains an overview of arguments that occur in debates around recreational hunting. The author analyzes the postulates that hunters and their proponents refer to (such as national culture related to history, tradition, rituals), positioning them against counterarguments, indicating their outdated character and aiming at moral condemnation of hunting.

Demoralization Effects of Sustainability: Development of a Theoretical Framework and Exploratory Pilot-Study on Moralization and Demoralization Effects in (M)Eating Behavior

Sustainability is not only a moral compass for organizations of all kinds and shapes; increasingly it can be identified as social representation influencing social practices and behavior. Conceptually inspired by the idea of preferences, conventions, and moral convictions influencing individual behavior and an innovative concept of moral harmonization strategies, this paper introduces a theoretical framework for the conceptualization of moralization effects in sustainability communication in general and food choices in particular. The framework is linked to empirical data from an exploratory qualitative pilot study, in which we conducted guideline-based interviews with 25 international students to gather information on individual perceptions of food choices and eating behaviors. Interview data were analyzed using inductive category formation to explore what role sustainability plays on an individual level in terms of coming in as a value or norm and how much sustainability as a normative principle influences individual decision-making processes and behavior. Based on the results of the pilot study, we hypothesize that food is less “morally overloaded” than expected and sustainability is not a moral imperative related to specific eating behavior. In line with previous findings, our results confirmed that food choices and changes in meat consumption involve a multi-faceted and complex decision-making process, which among others may be heavily influenced by inherent social norms within a person's social network, including family, friends as well as important other peers. Thus, with this preliminary study, we critically challenge existing literature on the influence of sustainability as moral imperative guiding and influencing individual behavior, at least in the domain of food and eating behavior. To elaborate on our proposed framework, additional empirical research is needed from a cultural, sustainability, language, and communication perspective.

Bioethics: An International, Morally Diverse, and Often Political Endeavor.

Bioethicists often remind health care professionals to pay close attention to issues of diversity and inclusion. Approaches to ethics consultation, where the perspective of the bioethicist is taken to be more morally correct or necessarily authoritative, have been critiqued as inappropriately authoritarian. Despite such apparent recognition of the importance of respecting moral diversity and the inclusion of different viewpoints, authoritarianism is all too often the approach adopted, especially as bioethics has shifted evermore into concerns for public policy. Yet, secular values and philosophical principles are not morally neutral; nor are the private moral convictions of bioethicists. Such analysis is always grounded in particular understandings of the right and the good, the virtuous and the just. Critical examination of common treatments and new alternatives is essential for the careful scientific practice of medicine. The same is true with regard to bioethics. Stagnating in customary or accepted claims of a common secular morality or a standard set of bioethical principles out of an unwillingness to explore the real diversity of moral thought, including traditional religious and cultural worldviews, fails to tap the human capacity to find innovative solutions to the complex challenges facing medicine.

Moral distress amongst palliative care doctors working during the COVID-19 pandemic: A narrative-focussed interview study

Background: Palliative care professionals have had to adapt to rapidly changing COVID-19 restrictions with personal protective equipment and physical distancing measures impacting face-to-face communication with patients and relatives. Aim: To explore the narratives of palliative care doctors working during the pandemic to understand their experiences at a personal and professional level. Design: In-depth narrative interviews were carried out via video call. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using a joint paradigmatic and narrative approach to elucidate common themes and closely explore individual narratives. Setting/participants: Eight palliative care doctors who had worked on a hospice inpatient unit in the UK before and during the pandemic were recruited from two hospices in Scotland. Results: Three intersecting themes are described, the most significant being moral distress. Participants articulated a struggle to reconcile their moral convictions with the restrictions enforced, for example, wanting to provide support to patients through physical proximity but being unable to. To differing degrees, this resulted in internal conflict and emotional distress. Two further themes arose: the first concerned a loss of humanity in interaction and a striving to re-humanise communication through alternative means; the second being a change in staff morale as the pandemic progressed. Conclusions: Restrictions had a considerable impact on palliative care doctors’ ability to communicate with and comfort patients which led to moral distress and contributed to decreasing morale. Future research could explore moral distress in palliative care settings internationally during the pandemic with a view to compare the factors affecting how moral distress was experienced.

On a Possible Basis for Metaphysical Self-development in Natural and Artificial Systems

Recent research into the nature of self in artificial and biological systems raises interest in a uniquely determining immutable sense of self, a “metaphysical ‘I’” associated with inviolable personal values and moral convictions that remain constant in the face of environmental change, distinguished from an object “me” that changes with its environment. Complementary research portrays processes associated with self as multimodal routines selectively enacted on the basis of contextual cues informing predictive self or world models, with the notion of the constant, per-vasive and invariant sense of self associated with a multistable attractor set aiming to ensure personal integrity against threat of disintegrative change. This paper proposes that an immutable sense of self emerges as a global attractor which can be described as a project ideal self-situation embodied in frontal medial processes during more or less normal adolescent development, and that thereafter serves to orient agency in the more or less free development of embodied potentials over the life course in effort to realize project conditions, phenomenally identified with the felt pull towards this end as purpose of and source of meaning in life. So oriented, life-long self-development aims to embody solutions to problems at different timescales depending on this embodied purpose, ultimately in the service of evolutionary processes securing organism populations against threats of disintegrative change over timespans far beyond that of the individual. After characterizing the target sense of self, research circling this target is briefly surveyed. Self as global project and developmental neural correlates are proposed. Then, the paper discusses some implications for research in biological and artificial systems. Building from earlier work in cognitive neurorobotics, discussion affirms the value of reinforcement rituals including prayer in metaphysical self-development, considers implications for value alignment and rights associated with free will in the context of artificial intelligence and robot religion, and concludes by emphasizing the importance of self-development toward project ideals as source of meaning in life in the current social-political environment.

Biscuits, the World Cup and Nobel Prizes: The Puzzling Documentation of Shin Bet Interrogations

Abstract Records kept by security authorities documenting potentially violent encounters are generally characterized by technocratic language and parsimonious content, which is intended to project an image of objective and impartial state officials. A qualitative analysis of 688 records covering interrogations of suspects in terror activities by the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) presents a very different picture. They consist of representations of (1) hospitality—caring for the well-being of the person under interrogation; (2) camaraderie—amicable conversations between interrogator and interrogee; and (3) moral conviction—impassioned political or moral debates regarding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The analysis shows how unconventional documentation techniques in security interrogations may be used to preserve legitimacy; bolster professional prestige and makes a sophisticated use of a sense of secrecy.

Moralizing the COVID-19 Pandemic: Self-Interest Predicts Moral Condemnation of Other's Compliance, Distancing, and Vaccination.

The emergence of the novel coronavirus has put societies under tremendous pressure to instigate massive and rapid behavior change. Throughout history, an effective strategy to facilitate novel behaviors has been to morally condemn those who do not behave in an appropriate way. Accordingly, here, we investigate if complying with the advice of health authorities—for example, to physically distance or vaccinate—has emerged as a moralized issue during the COVID‐19 pandemic. In Study 1, we rely on data (N = 94K) from quota‐sampled rolling cross‐sectional online surveys from eight countries (Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, the United Kingdom, and the United States). We find that large majorities find it justified to condemn those who do not keep a distance to others in public and around half of respondents blame ordinary citizens for the severity of the pandemic. Furthermore, we identify the most important predictors of condemnation to be behavior change and personal concern, while institutional trust and social distrust also play large but less consistent roles. Study 2 offers a registered replication of our findings on a representative sample of Britons (N = 1.5K). It shows that both moralization and condemnation of both vaccination and general compliance are best predicted by self‐interested considerations.

Sparking Religious Conversion through AI?

This paper will take the stance that cognitive enhancement promised by the use of AI could be a first step for some in bringing about moral enhancement. It will take a further step in questioning whether moral enhancement using AI could lead to moral and or religious conversion, i.e., a change in direction or behaviour reflecting changed thinking about moral or religious convictions and purpose in life. One challenge is that improved cognition leading to better moral thinking is not always sufficient to motivate a person towards the change in behaviour demanded. While some think moral bioenhancement should be imposed if necessary in urgent situations, most religions today see volition in conversion as essential. Moral and religious conversion should be voluntary and not imposed, and recent studies that show possible dangers of the use of AI here will be discussed along with a recommendation that there be regulatory requirements to counteract manipulation. It is, however, recognized that a change in moral thinking is usually a necessary step in the process of conversion and this paper concludes that voluntary, safe use of AI to help bring that about would be ethically acceptable.

Conscience-driven corporate social advocacy: analyzing moral conviction and perceived motives as predictors of organization-public relationships

PurposeThis study examines how congruent moral conviction between an individual and a company impacts organization-public relationships (OPR). Using arguments from the Attribution Theory, this study also examines how individuals' perceptions of company motives impact the quality of the OPR. This study offers new understanding of what drives individuals' supporting behaviors regarding a company's advocacy efforts and how individual and company ethics contribute to OPR.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducts an online survey (N = 267) to examine the role of moral conviction as a predictor of OPR in the context of corporate social advocacy (CSA). Four types of attributions are examined as a mediating variable.FindingsResults indicate that moral congruency between an individual and an organization directly leads to stronger trust and power balance and that moral conviction positively predicts all four OPR dimensions through values-driven attributions.Originality/valueThis study is novel in its inclusion of the moral conviction variable examined in a CSA context, as the role of ethics, or ethical applications, has not been widely examined in this body of literature.

Moral conviction and metacognitive ability shape multiple stages of information processing during social decision-making

Moral conviction has the potential to inspire activism and change, but can also instigate divisiveness and great harm. Moreover, attitudes held with moral conviction are experienced as universal objective truths and are less likely to demonstrate social conformity. Some evidence suggests that holding strong moral views may be a consequence of a cognitive style which includes lower metacognitive sensitivity. This study combined measures of attitudes, moral convictions, psychophysics, and electroencephalography (EEG) to determine how metacognition and moralization influence different stages of information processing during social decision-making, as well as the neural mechanisms underlying these effects. First, 170 participants were asked to indicate their attitudes and moral convictions about specific social issues that are currently important to US college students. Later, a subset of 81 participants completed a perceptual confidence task to assess their metacognition. Then, they underwent EEG while evaluating photographs of protests ostensibly about the same social issues. Prior to each photo, participants were provided with statistical information about social consensus from their peers for each issue. As predicted, stronger moral convictions were associated with lower social conformity. Furthermore, this effect was more pronounced in individuals with lower metacognitive ability. Moralized content was prioritized in multiple stages of information processing, including both early automatic attention and later deliberative stages, with medial frontal negativity (MFN) and early posterior negativity (EPN) predicting reduced conformity. Changes in alpha and high beta power indicated increased attention and engagement for moralized content. Together, results from these complementary methods and levels of analysis both converge to indicate that moralization alters sensitivity to social influence by shifting neural responses to efficiently prioritize information related to moralized beliefs.

Humane Professions: The Defence of Experimental Medicine, 1876–1914 by Rob Boddice

In this book, Boddice explores how medical scientists developed their defense of scientific experimentation on animals in late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century Britain and United States, thereby causing drastic changes to the idea of medical humanity. In addition, the book analyzes the difficulties that both countries confronted and the strategies that they deployed against the anti-vivisection movement. The book argues that when scientific communities faced accusations of immorality from anti-vivisectionists, they not only acquired support from domestic and overseas scientific allies but also merged the scientific spirit with discourses of culture, rhetoric, politics, and gender to develop their own version of medical humanity.Boddice constructs his argument in five chronological chapters in the context of a longue durée (8). Building on his previous work, which focused on medical science as a sympathetic practice in nineteenth-century Britain (3), he analyzes old British and American official archives, medical records, and personal letters from the perspective of cultural, intellectual, medical, public, and gender history. He applies the tools of cultural anthropology to argue that scientific communities took moral economy into consideration when they planned their strategies to justify vivisection for medical research (7). In addition, the book uses the sociology of emotions and actor-network theory to explain how British and American medical authorities manipulated public opinion and sought transnational cooperation and interaction to counteract the protests of anti-vivisectionists (144–148, 151).The controversy surrounding animal vivisection dates back at least to the Enlightenment, extending into the nineteenth century in Western scientific medicine (55–56). The moral condemnation from anti-vivisectionists negatively impacted the governmental and public funding and support of British and U.S. medical scientists—all of whom accepted both Charles Darwin’s concept of evolution and the experimental medicine that had emerged in Germany (69–70, 78). To counter this growing opposition, Stephen Paget, leader of the British Research Defence Society, worked to translate professional medical knowledge and practice into an accessible language and to spread popularized scientific information to all classes of British society through publications, speeches, and media (114). Likewise, Walter Cannon, the leading figure of the American Defense of Medical Research, exploited publications and the media to portray medical practitioners as scientific pioneers and vivisection as a powerful tool for medical advancement (163).Both organizations used emotional messaging to win broad support. By 1914, they had transformed the image of experimental medicine, a male-dominated realm, from cold-blooded and inhumane to salutary, rational, civilized, humanitarian, and self-sacrificing. At the same time, they labeled the anti-vivisectionists as irrational, uncivilized, unpatriotic, ignorant, and emotional women (135–136, 171).Boddice closely and systematically reconstructs how the information network of British and American scientists was ultimately able to shift public opinion, not through dry academic research and statistics but through “emotional labor”—the use of personal stories and sentimental experiences (150). Although most previous studies of the history of animal experimentation have focused on the voices of anti-vivisectionists, this book also presents the conflict from medical scientists’ point of view, allowing for a more comprehensive understanding of how the controversies originated.

Tensions of abolitionism during the negotiation of the 1949 ‘Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others’

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the negotiations for the ‘Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others’ adopted by the General Assembly (GA) of the United Nations (UN) in 1949. This convention significantly shifted the international approach towards ‘traffic in persons’ by adopting a so-called ‘regulation-abolitionist’ approach and mandating the abolition of the then dominant national approach to prostitution: ‘state-regulated prostitution’. International anti-trafficking law, for the first time, explicitly addressed national prostitution laws and, therefore, prostitution itself. Regulation-abolitionism called for the abolition of ‘state-regulated prostitution’ as a way of both freeing prostitutes from the discriminatory treatment of the police and other state actors, but also as a strategy to combat human trafficking. Through careful analysis of the documentary record concerning some of the core articles of the Convention, the paper identifies multiple contradictions and ‘tensions of abolitionism’ during the negotiations for the Convention, as well as competing ideas about the social and legal status of prostitution and people selling sex after the abolition of state-regulated prostitution. Most importantly, the moral condemnation of prostitution persisted across the political spectrum and the nascent ideological fault lines of the Cold War. In terms of actors, the paper focuses on the contribution of civil society actors, UN administrative personnel and two states (France and the United Kingdom). This paper proposes the concept of tensions of abolitionism to capture the ways in which the regulation-abolitionist approach was caught between competing goals: the law-enforcement-centred repression (of exploitation), the deregulation of prostitution via the abolition of state regulation and the guarantee of the human rights of prostitutes vis-à-vis the state. The paper stresses the legacy of the 1949 Convention in re-structuring the practice of commercial sex to the detriment of sex workers and its failure in eliminating human trafficking.

Moral Convictions and Threats to Science

When science is marshaled to support one side or another in policy debates, people can react to that information differently depending on whether it supports their own position. They tend to find fault in unfavorable information and accept favorable information less critically. This may especially be the case when individuals’ positions are held with moral conviction—that is, when their position is not only their preferred position, but when it is the position that they feel to be morally correct. I examine three areas in which allowing moral convictions to influence reactions to scientific information may actually threaten the social benefits of science: promoting science misperceptions, eroding the credibility of scientists as sources of information, and eroding evaluations of science as a process. I argue that dealing with the influence of moral conviction over scientific interpretation will require acknowledgement that the social benefits of science are not self-evident and that they depend on public buy-in.

Study of institutional and professional loyalty features in future engineers

Introduction. Increasing professional loyalty attracts to the organization not only specialists that are qualified, but also committed employees that are involved, interested, motivated for long-term relations with the organization, those of high moral convictions that contribute to the adequate moral decisions in complicated professional backgrounds. The purpose of the study is to study the institutional loyalty, involvement in professional activities, as well as ideas about the organization of engineering students working in the profession and studying in the master’s program. Materials and methods. The study involved 196 students of the University of Architecture and Civil Engineering in St. Petersburg (98 females and 98 males) studying under the “Construction” Master’s program and working in the construction industry. The average age of the research subjects was 23 years, the average work experience in the current organization was 1 year 3 months. Methods: Utrecht Engagement Scale by A. Bakker, W. Shaufeli; WACMQ method (Workplace affective commitment multidimensional questionnaire) by Morin A. J. S. to measure the level of affective commitment to the workplace; test of unfinished sentences “For me, the organization is…”. Methods of mathematical statistics: Pearson correlation analysis, cluster analysis (Ward’s method), Student’s t-test for independent samples. Results. The results of the study allow to identify new facts of institutional loyalty of young specialists working in the construction industry and not having extensive professional experience. It has been determined that the degree of “involvement” in professional activities among the respondents, like energy, commitment, absorption in activities is not fully expressed. The respondents tend to have a pragmatic attitude towards their organizations. First of all, they see the organization as a platform for career growth and professional experience. At the same time, the employees demonstrate an ambivalent emotional attitude towards the organization: both positive and negative. Young people will be committed to their organization if it provides them with the opportunity to fully pursue what they love and promote their careers (r= 0.25, р ≤ 0.01). The older the employee, the more diligently he or she solves the problems of the organization, the more client-oriented and loyal to the profession he or she becomes (r= 0.15, р ≤ 0.01). The employee’s negative emotions in relation to his or her work reduce his or her professional loyalty and commitment to the organization in which he or she works (r= – 0.14, р ≤ 0.05). Conclusion. The employees’ institutional loyalty is the organization’s competitive advantage. However, the institutional loyalty of an employee may fail to be formed if it is not fed as early as at the stage of training at an educational institution when forming professional commitment.

The role of a judge in the formation of the Ukrainian legal system

Law, as a measure of freedom and justice, is created by the collision of diverse social elements, when the new collective whole can no longer be restrained by simple custom, morality. The divergence of moral convictions makes possible the existence of social cohesion and is reconciled by law, first in the form of the orders of elders, experienced, who act as arbitrators. And later this right becomes a custom and morality, but at the same time it becomes the content of a new morality.
 The new law determines only the direction in which the necessary life forms of a new social union should be formed and in which they should eventually take root in the general consciousness. Judicial acts of public authority were the primary source, and later they were included in the generally binding rules applicable to production, distribution and exchange.
 Due to the lack of strict law, a judge in Ukraine had a respectable status in ancient times, and trust in him in the early stages of the historical development of procedural law was an integral condition without which trial was impossible. There were no legal norms, and the judiciary had to establish them for each case under consideration, and the judicial process consisted of the creation of a norm and its application. The judge had to decide not only on the case, but also to find a rule of law, not only to judge a particular case, but also to declare in a casuistic form a universally binding provision that would be important for both litigants and the community as a whole.
 The main driving force behind the so-called case consuetude there is a kind of assessment of the parties to the dispute and their position in the family, so the decision was made taking into account the person and his economy.
 According to the villagers, the advantage of their local court over the state was that the latter, strictly guided by the law, was unable to make a decision that would not contradict the principles of rural life and common sense.
 The judge judges good people, whose presence complements the gaps in the process, which undoubtedly arise as a result of general illiteracy, most often of all persons involved in the process, not excluding the judge. Therefore, the record is not written, but orally and is engraved in people's memory.
 The inseparability of the judiciary until almost the middle of the 16th century led to the fact that the authority of the court decision was given the status of the person in society who made the decision, rather than its compliance with legal norms.

Does crossing a moral line justify collective means? Explaining how a perceived moral violation triggers normative and nonnormative forms of collective action

AbstractIn three studies conducted in the United States, we examined whether a perceived moral violation motivates willingness to engage in normative and more radical collective action. Using value‐protection and identity‐formation models, we explored whether increased endorsement of moral convictions and relevant opinion‐based group identification could explain such effects. Study 1, using the “travel ban” for Muslims as the focal issue, experimentally found that a strong violation, compared to a weak violation, increased normative and nonnormative collective action, moral convictions and opinion‐based group identification. Study 2 replicated these results in a longitudinal design and supported a mediating effect of increased endorsement of moral convictions and opinion‐based group identity. Study 3 used a real‐world violation (the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate agreements) to replicate the findings cross‐sectionally. We conclude that a perceived moral violation motivates normative and nonnormative collective action because the violation makes one's moral conviction and opinion‐based group identification more salient.

What is special about conscientious objection?

The deliverances of our conscience are heartfelt, but not necessarily reason-based, moral convictions that concern our own behaviour. The fact that conscientious objections to a regulation, like a prohibition or obligation, express a heartfelt conviction that it is morally wrong to comply or morally permissible not to comply with the regulation provides a moral reason to respect the conviction because failing to do so is likely to cause objectors considerable suffering. But for conscientious objections to succeed in justifying exempting objectors from complying with the regulation, the suffering caused by forcing compliance must outweigh the suffering produced by exempting them from compliance. In the case of obligations, this necessitates that others with a similar competence are available to replace them. Conscientious objectors can never justifiably demand to be granted exemptions. This takes acts of generosity made feasible by favourable circumstances, such as the availability of replacements.

Is moral disgust good or bad?

Based on the empirical findings correlating disgust with conservatism, most disgust scholars have fed arguments for its moral unreliability and concluded with moral condemnation of this emotion. In this paper, I will examine common arguments about whether relying on disgust in the moral domain is to be considered good or bad. I will problematize the suggestion that we are justified in firmly believing that disgust is an ethically «dumb» – or an ethically «smart» – emotion. It rather seems that moral disgust can be rational or irrational, pro-social or anti-social, liberal or conservative depending on the eliciting contexts, and that such case-by-case conclusions rely on additional meta-ethical premises.

Moralizing Immigration: Political Framing, Moral Conviction, and Polarization in the United States and Denmark

Morally charged rhetoric is commonplace in political discourse on immigration but scholars have not examined how it affects divisions over the issue among the public. To address this gap, we employ preregistered survey experiments in two countries where anti-immigration rhetoric has been prominent: the United States and Denmark. We demonstrate that exposure to moralized messages leads respondents to place greater moral weight on their existing immigration opinions and become more averse to political leaders and, in the United States, social interaction partners who espouse opposite beliefs. This suggests that political moralization contributes to moral conflict and affective polarization. We find no evidence, however, that moral framing produces attitudinal polarization—that is, more extreme immigration opinions. Our study helps make sense of the heightened intensity of anti-immigrant politics even when attitudes are stable. It also suggests a promising avenue for comparative research on affective polarization by shifting the focus from partisanship to the moralization of existing issue disagreements.