Structure-seeking as a psychological antecedent of beliefs about morality.
Journal Article (Journal Article)
People differ in their beliefs about the objectivity of moral claims. We investigated a possible psychological antecedent that might be associated with people's beliefs about the objectivity of moral claims. More specifically, we examined the relationship between the endorsement of moral objectivism and one's need to see the world as structured, ordered, and predictable. By believing that the world comprises objective facts about morality, a simple, rigid, and unambiguous structure is imposed on the moral landscape that is invariant to the whims and preferences of any particular person or group. Our results suggest that those more in need of personal structure and order in their lives are indeed more likely to endorse moral objectivism. We discuss the implications of these results for psychological theories of control and structure-seeking, and for cooperation, prosociality, social orderliness, and social goal pursuit. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Stanley, ML; Marsh, EJ; Kay, AC
Published Date
- October 2020
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 149 / 10
Start / End Page
- 1908 - 1918
PubMed ID
- 32105120
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1939-2222
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0096-3445
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1037/xge0000752
Language
- eng