The moral mosaic: A factor structure for predictors of moral behavior

This study examines and reduces 34 scales from the moral literature, spanning self-strategies, self-awareness, philosophical outlooks, ethical judgments, and affective states. The battery, together with the HEXACO traits and two self-report measures of moral behavior, was completed by 449 college st...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality and individual differences 2021-01, Vol.168, p.110340, Article 110340
Main Authors: Bell, Kevin R., Showers, Carolin J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dogmatism
Donations
Emotionality
Emotions
Empathy
Ethics
Factor analysis
Honesty
Moral agency
Moral judgment
Morality
Predictive validity
Prosocial behavior
Reductionism
Self report
Selfawareness
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Summary:This study examines and reduces 34 scales from the moral literature, spanning self-strategies, self-awareness, philosophical outlooks, ethical judgments, and affective states. The battery, together with the HEXACO traits and two self-report measures of moral behavior, was completed by 449 college students. Factor analysis yielded six factors, termed the Moral Mosaic: moral agency, dogmatism, empathy, avoidant emotionality, moral reductionism, and depth. The factors predicted measures of unethical decisions and prosocial donation. Moral agency and dogmatism negatively predicted unethical decisions, whereas empathy positively predicted and dogmatism negatively predicted prosocial donation. For future use, the battery was reduced to 63 items capturing the 6 factors with similar predictive validity. Both long- and short-form factor models explained variance in the behavior measures not accounted for by the HEXACO traits. •A factor analysis of 34 moral predictors obtained 6 factors.•Controlling for the HEXACO, moral agency and dogmatism predicted ethical decisions.•Controlling for the HEXACO, empathy and low dogmatism predicted prosocial donation.
ISSN:0191-8869
1873-3549
DOI:10.1016/j.paid.2020.110340