Keyboard Shortcuts?f

×
  • →Next step
  • ←Previous step
  • ↓Skip this slide
  • ↑Previous slide
  • mShow slide thumbnails
  • nShow notes
  • hShow handout latex source
  • NShow talk notes latex source

Click here and press the right key for the next slide.

(This may not work on mobile or ipad. You can try using chrome or firefox, but even that may fail. Sorry.)

also ...

Press the left key to go backwards (or swipe right)

Press n to toggle whether notes are shown (or add '?notes' to the url before the #)

Press m or double tap to slide thumbnails (menu)

Press ? at any time to show the keyboard shortcuts

 

Introduction to Part II: Do Cultural Differences in Moral Psychology Explain Political Conflict on Climate Change?

 

Lecture 04:

Moral Psychology

Course Structure

 

Part 1: psychological underpinnings of ethical abilities ✓

Part 2: political consequences

Part 3: implications for ethics

this will be useful later

Background: People who identify as more socially conservative tend to exhibit stronger homophobia (Barnett, Öz, & Marsden, 2018).

Significance: 14 countries in the world where it is legal for you to be killed for having sex with someone of the same gender. Of these, 7 countries have recently executed people for homosexuality.

Why?

religion?

Hard to think this can be a driver (as opposed to a sustaining mechanism) because religious attitudes are so flexible. For example, semitic religions are monotheistic despite stories of demigods mating with humans in Genesis (Hendel, 1987); and many of them are fine with lending money for interest despite this being widely condemned.
Since much same interpretive expertise is used by some religious adherents to dissociate their religions homophobia, it is hard to think that religion as such can explain why people who identify as more socially conservative tend to exhibit stronger homophobia. (Might still be an effective sustaining mechanism, and may support moral disengagement.)
You can get a monotheistic religion out of a text that explicitly has demigods raping humans and living on earth among them.
Similarly with ursury.
Religion can maybe explain how homophobia is sustained; but not its origins. Not the religion itself, but something in how it is used, that drives homophobia.

cultural differences in morality?

Barnett et al. (2018, p. figure 2)

CAPTION : ‘MultiplemediationmodelforStudy1:politicalideology(social;IV),bindingandindividualizingfoundations(mediators),homophobia(DV)’

‘political ideology had an indirect effect on homophobia most consistently [...] through the binding foundations’ (Barnett et al., 2018, p. 1192).

Start with homosexuality (Barnett et al., 2018), (Lai, Haidt, & Nosek, 2014), (Koleva, Graham, Iyer, Ditto, & Haidt, 2012).
‘in the current research sanctity emerged as the strongest predicting foundation for attitudes toward homosexuality (including ATL and ATG), which is consistent with Koleva et al.’s (2012) results, where sanctity was seen to be the strongest predicting foundation for same-sex relationships’ (Lai et al., 2014).

start

Next issue (Part II of lecture course)!

Do cultural differences in moral psychology explain political conflict on climate change?

Plan:

Work through Feinberg & Willer (2013) ‘The Moral Roots of Environmental Attitudes’

What are their background assumptions, and what is the evidence for them?
What is their theoretical framework?

↑ one key source for all of Part II

[THis is here just so that not all authors are listed on the next slide (because of how the citeproc works): (McCright, Dunlap, & Marquart-Pyatt, 2016)]

fact to be explained

lib–con divide in support for action on climate change

(McCright et al., 2016)

‘Recent research finds a notable political cleavage on climate change views within the general publics of the United States, Australia, Canada, the UK, and a range of other countries around the world, with citizens on the left reporting greater belief in, concern about, and support for action on climate change than citizens on the right do. [...] such an ideological divide on climate change views was not found among the general publics of former Communist countries, [...] the ‘post-Communist effect.’ (McCright et al., 2016, p. 351)

fact to be explained

lib–con divide in support for action on climate change

(McCright et al., 2016)

fact to be explained

lib–con divide in support for action on climate change

(McCright et al., 2016)

fact to be explained

lib–con divide in support for action on climate change

(McCright et al., 2016)

Question

Do cultural differences in moral psychology explain political conflict on climate change?

Can I have a preview?

1. ‘Moral convictions and the emotions they evoke shape political attitudes’

2. [tbs; roughly descriptive moral pluralism is true]

tbs—to be specified
Skipping details of #2 in the preview

3. ‘liberals and conservatives possess different moral profiles’

There is cultural variation in the bounds of ethics between socially liberal and sociall conservative people.

4. ‘liberals express greater levels of environmental concern than do conservatives in part because liberals are more likely to view environmental issues in moral terms.’

5. ‘exposing conservatives to proenvironmental appeals based on moral concerns that uniquely resonate with them will lead them to view the environment in moral terms and be more supportive of proenvironmental efforts.’

I want to highlight that we have an explanation for a puzzling fact: in many (but not all) countries, liberals and conservatives divide on climate.
Also, we have an intervention.

Question

Do cultural differences in moral psychology explain political conflict on climate change?

Yes. And this fact matters for designing interventions.