Social Sources of Moralized Political Views

• In Event: 568 - Section on Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Groups, Trust, and Political Views

Abstract

A large body of evidence shows that people who have “moral convictions” about political issues—that is, people who see these issues as matters of fundamental right and wrong—are more likely to participate in politics and activism, feel hostility toward their opponents, and reject compromises or outcomes that contradict their views (Skitka and Morgan 2014, Ryan 2014). But despite the apparent importance of moral convictions, there has been little systematic study of their sources. How do people develop the sense that political issues are matters of important moral principle? In this paper, I identify and investigate three possible social sources of the tendency to see political issues in moral terms: exposure to political discussion in a context where morality is salient (a place of worship), exposure to political discussion among social ties (friends and family), and social identification with a political party. Using nationally representative data from the 2012 Measuring Morality Survey, I examine the likelihood that each of these factors plays an important role in generating the observed variation in the moralization of politics. I find that social identification with a political party is strongly associated with moralization of political issues, net of controls, while exposure to political discussion—either in a place of worship or among friends and family—is not. These results suggest further attention to the role of social identification in the development of moral convictions about political issues.

Author

• Liana Prescott, University of California-Berkeley