Building on previous research viewing morality as comprising several different domains, researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois investigated the “weight given to various moral acts and how social judgments may differ as a function of social domain.” In other words, they wanted to find out whether or not all categories of “moral” behavior are created equal.
Dividing the moral landscape into seven different domains—family, reciprocity, bravery, hierarchy, equality, property, and unity & communal sharing—the research team presented a group of participants with seven positive and seven negative behaviors for each domain, attributing each behavior to a different “social target” (i.e., hypothetical person). In the family domain, for example, participants were presented with the behavior statements, “Mark helped a member of his family” and “Dave failed to help a member of his family,” and in the hierarchy domain, they were presented with the statements, “Phil honored the rules of his superiors” and “Jake failed to honor the rules of his superiors.”
Presented with these moral actions, participants were asked to give their responses to the social target on three points: (1) whether or not the person was “principled, ethical, and morally upstanding,” (2) whether the described behavior was due to something about the person’s character or the result of the situation the person was in, and (3) whether or not they would be willing to cooperate with the social target.
