TY - JOUR
T1 - Moral foundations and cognitive ability
T2 - Results from a Japanese sample
AU - Kawamoto, Tetsuya
AU - Mieda, Takahiro
AU - Oshio, Atsushi
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was supported by JSPS KAKENHI 25380893 , Kwansei Gakuin University Joint Research Grant(B), JSPS KAKENHI 16J00972 , JSPS KAKENHI 16J07940 .
Funding Information:
This study used data from the Data-Sharing for Psychology in Japan (DSPJ) project, conducted by Atsushi Oshio (Waseda University), Asako Miura (Kwansei Gakuin University), Yuki Ueno (JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists, Waseda University), and Tetsuya Kawamoto (JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists, Keio University).
Funding Information:
The preparation of this article was supported by JSPS KAKENHI JP17K13921 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2019/10/15
Y1 - 2019/10/15
N2 - Research has indicated that human morality is associated with cognitive ability. However, morality is not a unified concept but rather is a multi-faceted concept. Moral Foundation Theory suggests that human beings have at least five innate moral foundations: Care/Injury, Fairness/Deception, Loyalty/Betrayal, Authority/Subversion, and Sacred/Fallen. The present study aimed to investigate the associations between these moral values and cognitive ability. A large-scale cross-sectional survey was conducted online, which was completed by a total of 4863 Japanese adults (2922 females, 1935 males, and 6 “other;” Mage = 48.78, SDage = 10.93, range 20–70). Correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed that cognitive ability was positively linked to Care/Injury, Fairness/Deception, and Sacred/Fallen. Notably, the positive associations of cognitive ability with Loyalty/Betrayal and Authority/Subversion were statistically significant only for people below the age of approximately 50. These findings indicate that although moral foundations are based on emotions and intuitions, they are substantially associated with cognitive ability. In addition, the positive direction of associations of cognitive ability with Loyalty/Betrayal and Authority/Subversion was inconsistent with previous findings in Western countries, which suggests that these associations are culture-dependent.
AB - Research has indicated that human morality is associated with cognitive ability. However, morality is not a unified concept but rather is a multi-faceted concept. Moral Foundation Theory suggests that human beings have at least five innate moral foundations: Care/Injury, Fairness/Deception, Loyalty/Betrayal, Authority/Subversion, and Sacred/Fallen. The present study aimed to investigate the associations between these moral values and cognitive ability. A large-scale cross-sectional survey was conducted online, which was completed by a total of 4863 Japanese adults (2922 females, 1935 males, and 6 “other;” Mage = 48.78, SDage = 10.93, range 20–70). Correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed that cognitive ability was positively linked to Care/Injury, Fairness/Deception, and Sacred/Fallen. Notably, the positive associations of cognitive ability with Loyalty/Betrayal and Authority/Subversion were statistically significant only for people below the age of approximately 50. These findings indicate that although moral foundations are based on emotions and intuitions, they are substantially associated with cognitive ability. In addition, the positive direction of associations of cognitive ability with Loyalty/Betrayal and Authority/Subversion was inconsistent with previous findings in Western countries, which suggests that these associations are culture-dependent.
KW - Age
KW - Cognitive ability
KW - Japanese
KW - Moral decision-making
KW - Moral foundation
KW - Syllogism-solving
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U2 - 10.1016/j.paid.2019.05.050
DO - 10.1016/j.paid.2019.05.050
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85066402568
SN - 0191-8869
VL - 149
SP - 31
EP - 36
JO - Personality and Individual Differences
JF - Personality and Individual Differences
ER -