Get Ahold of Yourself! Measuring the Moralization of Self-Control

• In Event: New Directions in Moral Criminology

Abstract

Low self-control is both an individual trait and a basis for the moral judgment of others. In this study, we assess the viability of measuring self-control as a moral judgment by adapting items from the Grasmick et al. (1993) self-control scale to parallel the format of items from the well-validated and widely used Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) (Graham et al. 2011). We conduct two MTurk surveys to assess the viability of this approach. In the first, the newly formatted self-control moralization questions are tested for scale reliability and for their fit within the current MFQ instrument. In the second, we examine the behavior of the newly developed scale with respect to a range of commonly examined attitudes towards crime and punishment. Results show that conceptualizing self-control as a basis for moral judgment offers a new way to understand the interplay between self-control, morality, and crime- and justice-related attitudes and policy preferences.

Authors

• Lily Hanrath, Pennsylvania State University

• Eric Silver, Pennsylvania State University