This may be confusing, good luck if you care, science research favors
no side just pisses them off as it evolves and flip flops.
...Liberals try to create a morality relying primarily on the Care/
harm foundation, with additional support from the Fairness/cheating
and Liberty/oppression foundations.
...Conservatives, especially religious conservatives, use all six
foundations, including Loyatly/betrayal, Authority/subversion, and
Sanctity/degradation.
-----------------------------------------
...a brief recap of Moral Foundations Theory; the five universal
morals include: (1) harm/care (strong empathy for those that are
suffering and care for the most vulnerable); (2) fairness/reciprocity
(equal rights, justice, and fairness for all); (3) ingroup/loyalty
(tribalism, patriotism, nationalism); (4) authority/respect (clear
lines of authority, uniform expectations, and appropriate deference to
the law and authority figures); and (5) purity/sanctity (clear and
pure social morals in step with piety, as well as revulsion of disgust/
carnality).
You see, across the five universal morals, people differ in the degree
to which they value each moral. This is evidenced most clearly in
HaidtÕs research on the degree to which Liberals and Conservatives
deviate on their weighting of the importance of each specific value.
See Political Divide for a more in-depth discussion of this topic.
Liberals seem to value harm/care and fairness/reciprocity above the
others, devaluing ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/
sanctity. They look out for the little guy and highly value equal
rights for all. They also value diversity, are open to experience Ð
tending to enjoy creativity and novelty. They may see harm in
overreaching government intrusion (e.g., Patriot Act), danger in blind
nationalism, and the injustices in puritanical religions and free
market capitalism (particularly for those at the bottom Ð namely:
women, children, and minorities). Think of places like New York City
or San Francisco where diversity and creativity abound and are in many
ways celebrated. Conservatives tend to look at the social entropy and
degradation in such places as evidence of immorality.
Conservatives tend to hold all of the values on an equal level. They
do value harm/care and fairness/reciprocity but less so than Liberals.
But unlike Liberals, they do highly value ingroup/loyalty, authority/
respect, and purity/sanctity. As a result they tend to value social
order, restraint, and conventions all held together by a strict
authority. They value self-control over self-expression, duty over
rights, and loyalty to oneÕs group over concerns for outgroups (Haidt,
2008). Liberals tend to view such systems as repressive, invasive,
and constrictive.
Liberals and Conservatives join together in their respective camps
forming what Haidt (2011) refers to as Tribal Moral Communities. Such
banding is not unique to those with strong political affiliations Ð
this proclivity transcends society. And what characterizes a Tribal
Moral Community is a grouping of people who rally around sacred
objects and principles (e.g., the flag, patriotism, freedom, religion)
in such a way that their sacralized truths render them blind to the
truths held by the outgroup.
http://geraldguild.com/blog/tag/morality/
-----------------------------------
Moral Foundations Theory was created by a group of social and cultural
psychologists (see us here) to understand why morality varies so much
across cultures yet still shows so many similarities and recurrent
themes. In brief, the theory proposes that six (or more) innate and
universally available psychological systems are the foundations of
Òintuitive ethics.Ó Each culture then constructs virtues, narratives,
and institutions on top of these foundations, thereby creating the
unique moralities we see around the world, and conflicting within
nations too. The foundations are:
1) Care/harm: This foundation is related to our long evolution as
mammals with attachment systems and an ability to feel (and dislike)
the pain of others. It underlies virtues of kindness, gentleness, and
nurturance.
2) Fairness/cheating: This foundation is related to the evolutionary
process of reciprocal altruism. It generates ideas of justice, rights,
and autonomy. [Note: In our original conception, Fairness included
concerns about equality, which are more strongly endorsed by political
liberals. However, as we reformulated the theory in 2011 based on new
data, we emphasize proportionality, which is endorsed by everyone, but
is more strongly endorsed by conservatives]
3) Liberty/oppression: This foundation is about the feelings of
reactance and resentment people feel toward those who dominate them
and restrict their liberty. Its intuitions are often in tension with
those of the authority foundation. The hatred of bullies and
dominators motivates people to come together, in solidarity, to oppose
or take down the oppressor.
4) Loyalty/betrayal: This foundation is related to our long history as
tribal creatures able to form shifting coalitions. It underlies
virtues of patriotism and self-sacrifice for the group. It is active
anytime people feel that it's "one for all, and all for one."
5) Authority/subversion: This foundation was shaped by our long
primate history of hierarchical social interactions. It underlies
virtues of leadership and followership, including deference to
legitimate authority and respect for traditions.
6) Sanctity/degradation: This foundation was shaped by the psychology
of disgust and contamination. It underlies religious notions of
striving to live in an elevated, less carnal, more noble way. It
underlies the widespread idea that the body is a temple which can be
desecrated by immoral activities and contaminants (an idea not unique
to religious traditions).
Much of our present research involves applying the theory to political
"cultures" such as those of liberals and conservatives. The current
American culture war, we have found, can be seen as arising from the
fact that
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...Liberals try to create a morality relying primarily on the Care/
harm foundation, with additional support from the Fairness/cheating
and Liberty/oppression foundations.
...Conservatives, especially religious conservatives, use all six
foundations, including Loyatly/betrayal, Authority/subversion, and
Sanctity/degradation.
------------------------------------------
The culture war in the 1990s and early 2000s centered on the
legitimacy of these latter three foundations. In 2009, with the rise
of the Tea Party, the culture war shifted away from social issues such
as abortion and homosexuality, and became more about differing
conceptions of fairness (equality vs. proportionality) and liberty (is
government the oppressor or defender?). The Tea Party and Occupy Wall
Street are both populist movements that talk a great deal about
fairness and liberty, but in very different ways, as you can see here,
for the Tea Party, and here, for OWS.
http://faculty.virginia.edu/haidtlab/mft/index.php