Haidt's Five Moral Foundations
Unlike the previous reasoners, only a few percent of the human population reasons at postconventional Stage Six. “Universal Principles,” Kohlberg says, is a stage where a respondent will bring in philosophical thinking about society as a whole and then act on civil disobedience to enact needed societal change. This stage would include martyrs, Martin Luther King, and Ghandi, for example. These people have a clear understanding of universal principles and individual rights, willing to accept any punishment for an action they deem moral. These people have a strong sense of what is right and wrong despite judgement, punishment, and even death. Kohlberg changed his views on Stage Six to more of a theoretical stage, scoring postconventional individuals
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Haidt defines five different moral foundations that underlie people’s worldviews. People use these moral foundations to decide on an action, explain previous decisions, or describe a narrative of a hypothetical dilemmas. The five moral foundations consist of care, fairness, authority, loyalty, and sanctity. When a certain event happens, each person will have particular foundations that are triggered. Haidt describes attributes specific foundations that are commonly found in liberal and conservative Americans. Liberals tend to be high in care and fairness and low in authority, loyalty, and sanctity, while conservatives tend to be about equal in authority, loyalty, and sanctity but low in care and fairness. Because our two major political groups are opposite in moral foundations it is easy to understand why they are constantly at odds, unable to compromise. The M.F.Q. measures which moral foundations the participant considers when deciding whether or not something is right or wrong. 32 statements relating to different moral foundations are listed and the respondent rates them based on a zero to five likert scale with zero being not at all relevant and five being extremely relevant. These answers are then totaled for each moral foundation and then compared to the norms of politically moderate American scores. If the participant responds high in care and fairness then they lean towards liberal if they score high in loyalty, authority, and/or purity then they are likely more
Haidt defines five different moral foundations that underlie people’s worldviews. People use these moral foundations to decide on an action, explain previous decisions, or describe a narrative of a hypothetical dilemmas. The five moral foundations consist of care, fairness, authority, loyalty, and sanctity. When a certain event happens, each person will have particular foundations that are triggered. Haidt describes attributes specific foundations that are commonly found in liberal and conservative Americans. Liberals tend to be high in care and fairness and low in authority, loyalty, and sanctity, while conservatives tend to be about equal in authority, loyalty, and sanctity but low in care and fairness. Because our two major political groups are opposite in moral foundations it is easy to understand why they are constantly at odds, unable to compromise. The M.F.Q. measures which moral foundations the participant considers when deciding whether or not something is right or wrong. 32 statements relating to different moral foundations are listed and the respondent rates them based on a zero to five likert scale with zero being not at all relevant and five being extremely relevant. These answers are then totaled for each moral foundation and then compared to the norms of politically moderate American scores. If the participant responds high in care and fairness then they lean towards liberal if they score high in loyalty, authority, and/or purity then they are likely more