Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T16:50:27.419Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Age and Moral Foundations: A Meta-Analytic Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2021

David Castilla-Estévez Open the ORCID record for David Castilla-Estévez [Opens in a new window]  and
Desirée Blázquez-Rincón Open the ORCID record for Desirée Blázquez-Rincón [Opens in a new window]
David Castilla-Estévez*
Affiliation:
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain)
Desirée Blázquez-Rincón
Affiliation:
Universidad de Murcia (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to David Castilla-Estévez. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. E-mail: psico.castillaestevez@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Several meta-analytic analyses are carried out to analyzed the relationship between age and different moral constructs based on the Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) framework. Pearson’s correlation estimates between age and any of the moral construcs were available for a total of 239 independent samples out of 122 studies. Correlation coefficients were meta-analyzed, heterogeneity was examined by searching for moderators when there were more than 30 estimates available, and a predictive model to estimate the expected correlation was proposed when several moderators showed a significant effect. The correlation between age and all the moral constructs analyzed exhibited pooled estimates of null or not relevant magnitude, ranging from –.02 to .08. The moderator analyses led to a predictive model in which participant’s mean age and ideology explained 40.80% of the total variability among the correlation between age and the Loyalty/Betrayal foundation, whereas participant’s mean age explained a significant percentage of variability (8.85 – 25.12%) for the correlations between age and the rest of moral foundations and the Individualizing group. Results show a quite stable moral matrix over the lifespan, but future research is needed for examine a possible non-linear relationship between age and moral foundations.

Keywords

agemoral developmentmoral foundationsmeta-analysissocio intuitive model
Type
Review Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 24 , 2021 , e41
Copyright
© Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Conflicts of Interest: None.

Funding Statement: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

References

References1

Armon, C., & Dawson, T. L. (1997). Developmental trajectories in moral reasoning across the life span. Journal of Moral Education, 26(4), 433–453. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305724970260404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Appelbaum, M., Cooper, H., Kline, R. B., Mayo-Wilson, E., Nezu, A. M., & Rao, S. M. (2018). Journal article reporting standards for quantitative research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task force report. American Psychologist, 73(1), 3–25. http://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000191.Google ScholarPubMed
Armon, C., & Dawson, T. L. (1997). Developmental trajectories in moral reasoning across the life span. Journal of Moral Education, 26(4), 433–453. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305724970260404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Begg, C. B., & Mazumdar, M. (1994). Operating characteristics of a rank correlation test for publication bias. Biometrics, 50(4), 1088–1101. https://doi.org/10.2307/2533446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bielby, D. D. V., & Papalia, D. E. (1975). Moral development and perceptual role-taking egocentrism: Their development and interrelationship across the life-span. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 6(4), 293–308. https://doi.org/10.2190/TNEX-PRK5-CTNT-G6H0.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boedeker, P., & Henson, R. K. (2020). Evaluation of heterogeneity and heterogeneity interval estimators in random-effects meta-analysis of the standardized mean difference in education and psychology. Psychological Methods, 25(3), 346–364. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borenstein, M., Hedges, L. V., Higgins, J. P. T., & Rothstein, H. R. (2009). Introduction to meta-analysis. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470743386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd( Ed.) Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203771587.Google Scholar
Dewey, J., & Tufts, J. H. (1908). American science series. Ethics. Henry Holt and Company. https://doi.org/10.1037/13641-000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dimitrov, D. M. (2002). Reliability: Arguments for multiple perspectives and potential problems with generalization across studies. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 62(5), 783–801. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316402236878.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durkheim, E. (2014). Las formas elementales de la vida religiosa [The elementary forms of religious life] (Martínez Arancón, A., Trans.) Alianza Editorial. (Original work published 1912).Google Scholar
Egger, M., Smith, G. D., Schneider, M., & Minder, C. (1997). Bias in meta-analysis detected by a simple, graphical test. British Medical Journal, 315(7109), 629–634. http://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.315.7109.629.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fiske, A. P. (1992). The four elementary forms of sociality: Framework for a unified theory of social relations. Psychological Review, 99(4), 689–723. https://doi.org/10.1037//0033-295X.99.4.689.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freud, S. (2010). El malestar en la cultura [The uneasiness in civilization] (López Ballesteros, L., Trans.) Omegalfa. (Original work published 1930).Google Scholar
Friesen, A. (2019). Generational change? The effects of family, age, and time on moral foundations. The Forum, 17(1), 121–140. https://doi.org/10.1515/for-2019-0005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, J. C. (2009). Moral development and reality: Beyond the theories of Kohlberg and Hoffman (2nd Ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. http://doi.org/10.4135/9781452233604.Google Scholar
Graham, J., Haidt, J., Koleva, S., Motyl, M., Iyer, R., Wojcik, S. P., & Ditto, P. H. (2013). Moral foundations theory: The pragmatic validity of moral pluralism. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 55–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-407236-7.00002-4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, J., Nosek, B. A., Haidt, J., Iyer, R., Koleva, S., & Ditto, P. H. (2011). Mapping the moral domain. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(2), 366–385. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021847.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814–834. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.108.4.814.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haidt, J. (2003). The emotional dog does learn new tricks: A reply to Pizarro and Bloom (2003). Psychological Review, 110(1), 197–198. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.110.1.197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haidt, J., & Graham, J. (2007). When morality opposes justice: Conservatives have moral intuitions that liberals may not recognize. Social Justice Research, 20(1), 98–116. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-007-0034-z.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haidt, J., & Joseph, C. (2004). Intuitive ethics: How innately prepared intuitions generate culturally variable virtues. Daedalus, 133(4), 55–66. https://doi.org/10.1162/0011526042365555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardy, S. A., & Carlo, G. (2011). Moral identity: What is it, how does it develop, and is it linked to moral action? Child Development Perspectives, 5(3), 212–218. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2011.00189.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartung, J. (1999). An alternative method for meta-analysis. Biometrical Journal, 41, 901–916. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1521-4036(199912)41:8<901::AID-BIMJ901>3.0.CO;2-W.3.0.CO;2-W>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedges, L. V., & Olkin, I. (1985). Statistical methods in meta-analysis (1st Ed.). Academic Press.Google Scholar
Higgins, J. P. T., Thompson, S. G., Deeks, J. J., & Altman, D. G. (2003). Measuring inconsistency in meta-analyses. British Medical Journal, 327, 557. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.327.7414.557.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iyer, R., Koleva, S., Graham, J., Ditto, P., & Haidt, J. (2012). Understanding libertarian morality: The psychological dispositions of self-identified libertarians. PLOS ONE, 7(8), Article e42366. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0042366.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
James, W. (1891). The moral philosopher and the moral life. International Journal of Ethics, 1(3), 330–354. https://doi.org/10.1086/intejethi.1.3.2375309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janoff-Bulman, R. (2009). To provide or protect: Motivational bases of political liberalism and conservatism. Psychological Inquiry, 20(2–3), 120–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/10478400903028581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, L. A. (2011). The cultural development of three fundamental moral ethics: Autonomy, community, and divinity. Zygon®, 46(1), 150–167. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2010.01163.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knapp, G., & Hartung, J. (2003). Improved tests for a random effects meta-regression with a single covariate. Statistics in Medicine, 22(17), 2693–2710. https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.1482.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohlberg, L. (1958). The development of modes of moral thinking in the years ten to sixteen. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. The University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Kohlberg, L., & Kramer, R. (1969). Continuities and discontinuities in childhood and adult moral development. Human Development, 12(2), 93–120. https://doi.org/10.1159/000270857.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
López-López, J. A., Marín-Martínez, F., Sánchez-Meca, J., van den Noortgate, W., & Viechtbauer, W. (2014). Estimation of the predictive power of the model in mixed‐effects meta‐regression: A simulation study. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 67(1), 30–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/bmsp.12002.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miles, A. (2014). Demographic correlates of moral differences in the contemporary United States. Poetics, 46, 75–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2014.09.004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nilsson, A., Erlandsson, A., & Västfjäll, D. (2020). Moral foundations theory and the psychology of charitable giving. European Journal of Personality, 34(3), 431–447. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peverill, S. (2020). The development of moral foundations in 2-and 4-year-olds [Doctoral dissertation, Dalhousie University]. DuraSpace. https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/79795/Peverill-Sarah-PhD-ClinicalPsychology-August-2020.pdf.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1965). The moral judgement of the child (Gabain, M., Trans.). Free Press. (Original work published 1932).Google Scholar
Pratt, M. W., Diessner, R., Hunsberger, B., Pancer, S. M., & Savoy, K. (1991). Four pathways in the analysis of adult development and aging: Comparing analyses of reasoning about personal-life dilemmas. Psychology and Aging, 6(4), 666–675. https://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.6.4.666.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rai, T. S., & Fiske, A. P. (2011). Moral psychology is relationship regulation: Moral motives for unity, hierarchy, equality, and proportionality. Psychological Review, 118(1), 57–75. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021867.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rebega, O. L. (2017). Gender differences in moral concerns, guilt and shame proness, and empathy. Romanian Journal of Experimental Applied Psychology, 8, 130–135. http://doi.org/10.15303/rjeap.2017.si1.a20.Google Scholar
Rozin, P., Lowery, L., Imada, S., & Haidt, J. (1999). The CAD triad hypothesis: A mapping between three moral emotions (contempt, anger, disgust) and three moral codes (community, autonomy, divinity). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(4), 574–586. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.4.574.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sánchez-Meca, J., López-López, J. A., & López-Pina, J. A. (2013). Some recommended statistical analytic practices when reliability generalization studies are conducted. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 66(3), 402–425. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8317.2012.02057.x.Google ScholarPubMed
Sánchez-Meca, J., & Marín-Martínez, F. (2008). Confidence intervals for the overall effect size in random-effects meta-analysis. Psychological Methods, 13(1), 31–48. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.13.1.31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sawilowsky, S. S. (2000). Psychometrics versus datametrics: Comment on Vacha-Haase’s “reliability generalization” method and some EPM editorial policies. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 60(2), 157–173. https://doi.org/10.1177/00131640021970439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shweder, R. A., Much, N. C., Mahapatra, M., & Park, L. (1997). The “big three” of morality (autonomy, community, and divinity), and the “big three” explanations of suffering. In Brandt, A. & Rozin, P. (Eds.), Morality and health (pp. 119–169). Routledge.Google Scholar
Stanley, T. D. (2005). Beyond publication bias. Journal of Economic Surveys, 19(3), 309–345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0950-0804.2005.00250.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, T. D., & Doucouliagos, H. (2007). Identifying and correcting publication selection bias in the efficiency-wage literature: Heckman meta-regression (Economics Series 2007, School Working Paper 2007/11). Faculty of Business and Law Deakin University. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.336.6634&rep=rep1&type=pdf.Google Scholar
Tamborini, R. (2011). Moral intuition and media entertainment. Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications, 23(1), 39–45. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000031.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaughan, T. J., Bell Holleran, L., & Silver, J. R. (2019). Applying moral foundations theory to the explanation of capital jurors’ sentencing decisions. Justice Quarterly, 36(7), 1176–1205. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2018.1537400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Viechtbauer, W. (2010). Conducting meta-analyses in R with the metafor package. Journal of Statistical Software, 36(3), 1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v036.i03.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Castilla-Estévez and Blázquez-Rincón supplementary material

Castilla-Estévez and Blázquez-Rincón supplementary material

Download Castilla-Estévez and Blázquez-Rincón supplementary material(File)
File 5.5 MB