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Moral Foundations Theory: An Exploratory Study with Accounting and Other Business Students

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  • Margaret Andersen
  • Jill Zuber
  • Brent Hill

Abstract

In this exploratory paper, we investigate the extension of Haidt’s (Psychol Rev 108(4):814–834, 2001 , The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion, 2012 ) Moral foundations theory (MFT), operationalized as the MFQ30 questionnaire, from a sample of the general public across many countries to a sample of business students. MFT posits that people rely on five major concerns, or foundations, when making moral judgments. The five concerns are care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, respect/authority, and purity/degradation. In addition, Haidt suggests that intuition, rather than reasoning, leads to moral judgment. We replicate Haidt’s measurement model and find that the measurement model based on our sample is consistent. This indicates support for MFT. Further, we find structural differences in the measurement model between the genders and between areas of study. Our findings suggest that all students in the sample focus substantially on the fairness foundation. Ethics education and research may seek to expand the number of moral foundations individuals consider when discerning whether something is right or wrong. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

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  • Margaret Andersen & Jill Zuber & Brent Hill, 2015. "Moral Foundations Theory: An Exploratory Study with Accounting and Other Business Students," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 525-538, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:132:y:2015:i:3:p:525-538
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2362-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jana Craft, 2013. "A Review of the Empirical Ethical Decision-Making Literature: 2004–2011," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 221-259, October.
    2. Peter Mudrack & E. Mason, 2013. "Ethical Judgments: What Do We Know, Where Do We Go?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(3), pages 575-597, July.
    3. Özgür Özmen Uysal, 2010. "Business Ethics Research with an Accounting Focus: A Bibliometric Analysis from 1988 to 2007," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(1), pages 137-160, April.
    4. Larry Floyd & Feng Xu & Ryan Atkins & Cam Caldwell, 2013. "Ethical Outcomes and Business Ethics: Toward Improving Business Ethics Education," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(4), pages 753-776, November.
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    1. Paul Shrivastava & Günter Schumacher & David Wasieleski & Marko Tasic, 2017. "Aesthetic Rationality in Organizations: Toward Developing a Sensibility for Sustainibility," Post-Print hal-01515126, HAL.
    2. Tamara Poje & Maja Zaman Groff, 2022. "Mapping Ethics Education in Accounting Research: A Bibliometric Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(2), pages 451-472, August.
    3. Warren Cook & Kristine M. Kuhn, 2021. "Off-Duty Deviance in the Eye of the Beholder: Implications of Moral Foundations Theory in the Age of Social Media," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(3), pages 605-620, September.
    4. Agata Mirowska & Raymond B. Chiu & Rick D. Hackett, 2022. "The Allure of Tyrannical Leaders: Moral Foundations, Belief in a Dangerous World, and Follower Gender," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(2), pages 355-374, November.

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