Impacts of University Students’ Ethical Ideology on Their Ethical Sensitivity: A Bayesian Moderation Analysis

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Abstract

This study investigated how university students’ ethical ideology, as measured by idealism and relativism, influences their ethical sensitivity and how these associations are moderated by students’ demographic measures. To that end, the study collected the data using the new Ethical Sensitivity Scale and the well-established Ethics Position Questionnaire from a sample of students in a Research 1 university in the southeastern United States. A structural equation modeling approach under Bayesian statistical inference was taken. The study largely reaffirmed, under the new context, the associations between ethical ideology and ethical sensitivity already reported in the literature and identified evidence of moderation by certain demographic measures of students. The study concludes with implications of the findings for ethics research, practice, and policy-/decision-making.

Authors

• Hongwei Yang, University of West Florida

• Jin Liu, University of Texas - Arlington

• Liu Liu, University of Georgia