Search

• The influence of Climate Change Information varied significantly by moral foundations. • A new Emoji framing elicited a high willingness-to-pay for four moral foundations. • Contrasting results were found between Individualizing and Binding foundations. • Strong willingness-to-pay was found for both Individualizing and Binding foundations. Transportation is a major source of climate change emissions. Providing people with better information on those emissions is one means of helping individuals make climate-friendly choices. However, not everyone is influenced by the same type of information. Previous research has demonstrated that Goal Framing Theory could help improve the influence of climate change emissions information and that different framings have different levels of influence depending on a number of socio-demographic and attitudinal characteristics. However, apart from climate change motivation, what other underlying psychological factors might help us understand why the framings vary in their influence between individuals? Moral Foundation Theory (MFT) identifies key values that influence people's moral decisions, providing a useful framework for understanding diverse responses to information. The objective of this study is to understand whether MFT can help explain different responses by individuals and identify which framings are associated with stronger responses for different moral foundations. This study investigates the moderating effects of moral foundations on individuals' responsiveness to different emission information framings. Utilizing data from discrete choice experiments involving 2015 Canadian drivers, we examine how different moral foundations impact the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for reducing emissions. The results reveal that the impact of emissions information framing varies significantly according to individuals' moral foundations. Specifically, moral values associated with Authority, Fairness, and Purity play negative moderating roles on WTP for CO 2 emissions under different framings, whereas Ingroup and Harm foundations have positive moderating effects on WTP with the framings tested. Additionally, innovative communication tools like new emojis demonstrated strong positive effects on WTP, especially among those with strong Ingroup, Fairness, and Purity values. Conversely, individuals with a strong Authority value showed the lowest WTP when presented with pressure gauge visuals. Using appropriate framing based on Moral Foundation Theory can considerably change the willingness-to-pay for climate change emissions for different parts of the population, with a notable increase in WTP observed among individuals inclined to alter their behavior. Future framings should incorporate MFT in their design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many scholars have examined moral values in Indonesian primary school textbooks, there is a paucity of literature on the theme of adopting a combination of systemic functional linguistics-informed language appraisal and moral foundation theories. To fill this lacuna, the present study aims to analyse the representation of moral values in the thematic textbook through the main characters in the stories. This research adopts language appraisal by Martin and White (2005) and the moral foundation theory by Graham et al. (2013). The findings showcase that moral values of the main characters in thematic textbooks encompass individualising foundations and binding foundations. Individualising foundations consist of care and fairness values, which promote individual protection and cooperation; meanwhile, binding foundations encompass loyalty, authority, and sanctity, which unite individuals to their social groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radioactively contaminated soil from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station accident in 2011 is required by law to be finally disposed of outside Fukushima Prefecture by 2045. To gain public acceptance of this policy, it is essential to promote understanding and nationwide discussion. We conducted a web-based survey of 2000 people in Japan to examine public attitudes toward final disposal of the contaminated soil outside Fukushima Prefecture. Results show that policy approval was negatively correlated with perceived risk of a final disposal site, sense of inequity associated with building a final disposal site near residential areas, and values that are absolutely non-negotiable or protected from trade-offs with other values (protected values). Policy approval was positively correlated with high levels of interest in the Fukushima accident and subjective knowledge of decontamination and the policy. Respondents' comments and opinions about the policy indicated that respondents who approved of the policy accepted burden sharing, while those who disapproved were unconvinced by the rationale behind disposal outside Fukushima Prefecture and were dissatisfied by the lack of information disclosure and transparency. While the government's efforts to disseminate information about the current status and future of Fukushima have been effective to a certain extent, they are insufficient to achieve widespread public understanding of the policy. Our results indicate that attention needs to be paid to procedural fairness and explanations of risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective(s): The current study was conducted aiming to assess the effect of moral foundations on academic integrity through the mediation of religious orientations. Methods: This was a cross sectional study on 544 (413 females & 131 males) convince sample of students of Tehran universities in Iran. The required data were collected using a multi-part questionnaire including demographic information, the Moral Foundation Questionnaire (MFQ), the Circumplex Religious Orientation Inventory (CROI), and the Academic Dishonesty. Then data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and bootstrap test was used to check the mediating role of variables. Results: The mean age of participants was 23.96 ± 6.43 years ranging from 17 to 53. The results showed that there was a positive and significant correlation between academic integrity and moral foundations (r=0.14, p

We examined moral judgments in three types of language: a native national language (Italian), a non-native foreign language (English), and a native regional language (Venetian, oral and colloquial). We used the Moral Foundation Questionnaire to investigate cross-linguistic differences in multiple aspects of morality. Higher scores in the Harm, Purity and Fairness dimensions were obtained in the foreign and the regional language with respect to the national language. In addition, higher scores in the Ingroup dimension were obtained in the foreign language with respect to the native language. The effects of language on morality can thus be quite pervasive, involving a variety of aspects of morality. The differences we observed across these languages are explained in terms of their sociolinguistics – specifically, the greater use of national languages with moral values and beliefs. It is proposed that language effects arise because the language that is used activates information associated with it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2016 presidential election marked a new era of political campaign featured by social media-powered professional and citizen journalism. Still, legacy news organizations such as the New York Times (NYT) and the Washington Post amassed significant influences among voters in both online and offline settings. Against this backdrop, this study examines how NYT covered Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump during the 2016 election. Drawing upon the rich literature in moral psychology, particularly the model of intuitive morality and exemplars (MIME; Tamborini, 2012, "A Model of Intuitive Morality and Exemplars." In Media and the Moral Mind, edited by R. Tamborini, 43–74. London, England: Routledge). A computerized textual analysis of over 1,000 socially transmitted NYT stories regarding both candidates was performed. Findings show that the NYT's election coverage displayed a certain level of coverage neutrality, and the use of moral terms in NYT's coverage at critical time points might have contributed to Trump's final victory in 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive psychologist Bering attempted to explain away religion by suggesting that the evolutionary process predisposed the human mind to assume a spiritual realm in which dead people continue to keep their consciousness. In Bering's study participants were asked to rate the characteristics of persons in given photos in two sittings. When the experimenter told the participants that one of the persons in the photo passed away in the second round, the average ratings for that person significantly went up. Bering concluded that higher ratings were a result of participants' fear of being punished by the dead agent. By replicating this experiment, the authors found that initially the non-religious group gave higher ratings to the dead person than the religious group in the pretest, but the order switched in the posttest. Our study suggests that there might be alternate sources of our belief system, and also there might be alternate explanations for the same phenomenon revealed by the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between critical motivation, altruism and peer caring as the moral foundation of social life. Although the direct relationship between critical consciousness and prosocial involvement has for some time entered the realm of educational research, the mechanisms by which the components of critical consciousness influence behaviour are not clearly defined. Therefore, we investigated the mediating role of the tendency to protect others as a moral foundation in the relationship between critical motivation and altruistic behaviour. The study involved 308 young people aged 18–24. Participants were recruited from various urban high schools and universities, and invited to complete a set of questionnaires. The results emphasise the importance of critical motivation as a predictor of altruistic behaviour. Moreover, the data indicate that the tendency to protect others mediated the effects of critical motivation regarding altruistic behaviour. These results provide a clearer perspective on the process by which critical motivation can influence the behaviour and involvement of young people in different social contexts. The results emphasise especially the importance of developing and stimulating critical motivation in schools in order to increase the active involvement of young people in the current social context.

Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP) is a field of study suggested to improve team functioning and patient safety. However, even interprofessional teams are susceptible to group pressures which may inhibit speaking up (positive deviance). Obedience is one group pressure that can inhibit positive deviance leading to negative patient outcomes. To examine the influence of obedience to authority in an interprofessional setting, an experimental simulated clinical scenario was conducted with Respiratory Therapy (RT) (n = 40) and Advanced Care Paramedic (ACP) (n = 20) students. In an airway management scenario, it was necessary for students to challenge an authority, a senior anesthesiologist, to prevent patient harm. In a 2 × 2 design cognitive load and an interventional writing task designed to increase positive deviance were tested. The effect of individual characteristics, including Moral Foundations, and displacement of responsibility were also examined. There was a significant effect for profession and cognitive load: RT students demonstrated lower levels of positive deviance in the low cognitive load scenario than students in other conditions. The writing task did not have a significant effect on RT or ACP students' behaviour. The influence of Moral Foundations differed from expectations, In Group Loyalty was selected as a negative predictor of positive deviance while Respect for Authority was not. Displacement of responsibility was influential for some participants thought not for all. Other individual variables were identified for further investigation. Observational analysis of the simulation videos was conducted to obtain further insight into student behaviour in a compliance scenario. Individual differences, including experience, should be considered when providing education and training for positive deviance. Simulation provides an ideal setting to use compliance scenarios to train for positive deviance and for experimentation to study interprofessional team behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My intention in this research is to focus on the idea of spiritual crisis in human rights arena. The topic I shall be discussing concerns a basic set of issues dealing with the purpose of human rights, their moral foundation and their ultimate metaphysical ground. Simply put I shall be asking whether there is something special in human beings which entitles them to rights. Some arguments such as human agency, dignity and natural law tend to be quite abstract. It could therefore be tempting to assume that the issue, being of not much practical importance, is not relevant. But this would be a rush assumption because determining the foundation of human rights means determining the very legitimacy of human rights themselves in the international arena. I will consider Ignatieff’s pragmatic point of view that can be summed up with a catch phrase: “without the Holocaust no Declaration, because of the Holocaust, no unconditional faith in the Declaration either” and Stackhouse’s religious one developed in Religion and Human Rights: a Theological Apologetic. My purpose is to analyse both Ignatieff’s view, that avoids contentious religious ground for human rights and offers a secular ground designed with the idea of human agency, and Max Stackhouse who, instead, defends the idea of a theological ethic as religious ground for human rights. First of all, through this analysis I aim at pointing out that while on the one hand the respect for our fellow human beings needs a reverential attitude and our commitment to protect our species needs to be sustained by some faith; on the other hand grounding human rights in religion is extremely dangerous and may imply violent clashes between different religious faiths. Secondly, I also aim at criticizing Ignatieff’s view because a defence of human rights as pragmatic instruments on pragmatic grounds seems to be too weak and human rights regime needs moral and metaphysical foundations to be universally recognized and implemented. Thirdly and ultimately, using Rawls’s concept of overlapping consensus I aim at showing the unecessity to agree upon a “single foundation”. A single foundation risks to be authoritative, whereas, what a human rights regime relies on is a plural foundations. If we arrive at respecting human rights on a plurality of grounds, then we are making them more broadly acceptable to people. If we publicly defend human rights for a plurality of reasons, we are rightly proving that there is no “proper” metaphysical foundation. A good reason why we do not need to ground human rights in any particular metaphysics can be that they are already grounded in many metaphysics and can already derive sustenance from many sources. Hence, it would be worthwhile and wise to welcome a plurality of nonexclusive claims concerning the ways in which human rights can legitimately be grounded. Human agency, human dignity, equal creation are, for instance, some examples of different foundations that are not mutually exclusive. هدف من در این تحقیق تمرکز بر ایدة بحران معنوی در عرصه حقوق بشر است. موضوعی که من آن را مورد بحث قرار می­دهم به مجموعه­ای اساسی از مسائلی مرتبط می­شود که به هدف حقوق بشر، پایه اخلاقی آن­ها و زمینه متافیزیکی غایی آن­ها مربوط می­شود. به شکل ساده تر این پرسش را مطرح می­کنم که آیا در افراد نوع بشر چیز خاصی وجود دارد که آن­ها را مستحق داشتن حق می­کند؟ برخی از استدلال­ها مانند عامل انسان، کرامت و قانون طبیعی کاملا انتزاعی هستند. بنابراین می­توان چنین فرض کرد که چون مسئله اهمیت کاربردی زیادی ندارد، این استدلالات مرتبط نیستند. اما این فرض کمی عجولانه است، زیرا تعیین پایه و اساس حقوق بشر به معنی تعیین مشروعیت خودِ حقوق بشر در عرصة بین­المللی است. من دیدگاه عملگرا ایگناتیف را که می­توان به صورت یک جمله کلیدی خلاصه کرد در نظر می­گیرم: «بدون هولوکاست اعلامیه حقوق بشر وجود نداشت. به خاطر هولوکاست، هیچ اعتقاد بی قید و شرطی در این اعلامیه وجود ندارد.» و دین داری استاک هاوس در دین و حقوق بشر توسعه یافته است: متکلمان دینی. هدف من این است که هر دو دیدگاه را بررسی کنم. هم دیدگاه ایگناتیف که از پرداختن به زمینه­های مذهبیِ حقوق بشر دوری می­کند و یک دیدگاه با پایه­های سکولار با ایده عاملیت انسان ارائه می­دهد و هم دیدگاه مکس استاک هاوس که بر خلاف ایگناتیف از اخلاقی دینی به عنوان پایه­های حقوق بشر دفاع می­کند. اول از همه از طریق این تجزیه و تحلیل، قصد دارم اشاره کنم در حالی که از یک سو احترام به هم نوعان ما نیازمند یک رویکرد محبت آمیز است و تعهد ما به حفظ نوع بشر نیازمند تقویت توسط ایمان دارد؛ از سوی دیگر پایه گذاری حقوق بشر در دین بسیار خطرناک است و ممکن است درگیری­های خشونت آمیز میان مذاهب مختلف به وجود آورد. دوماً به انتقاد از دیدگاه ایگناتیف می­پردازم، چرا که دفاع از حقوق بشر به عنوان ابزار عملگرایانه، در زمینه­های عملی بسیار ضعیف است و نظام حقوق بشر نیازمند مبانی اخلاقی و متافیزیکی است که به طور جهانی شناخته شده باشد و به اجرا درآمده باشند. سوماً و در نهایت با استفاده از مفهوم رالز در خصوص همپوشانی اجماع، قصد من نشان دادن عدم نیاز به توافق بر سر «بنیان­های واحد» می­باشد. در نظر گرفتن یک بنیان واحد توانا و معتبر برای حقوق بشر، ریسک پذیر است. در حالی که یک رژیم حقوق بشری بر بنیان­های چندگانه استوار است. پذیرش حقوق بشر با بنیان­های چندگانه توسط ما به پذیرش وسیع تر آن توسط مردم کمک می­نماید. اگر به علت گوناگونی به طور عمومی از حقوق بشر دفاع کنیم، به درستی ثابت می­کنیم که هیچ پایه متافیزیکی مناسبی وجود ندارد. دلیل خوبی برای آنکه که چرا ما نیازمند زمینه­های حقوق بشری در هر متافیزیک خاص نیستیم می­تواند این باشد که آن­ها هم اکنون نیز به بسیاری از متافیزیک­ها متکی هستند و در حال حاضر می­توانند از منابع بیشتری بهره ببرند. از این رو ارزشمند و عاقلانه است که از ادعاهای غیر انحصاری متکثر مرتبط با راه­هایی که حقوق بشر [به واسطة آن­­ها] به طور قانونی پایه گذاری می­شود، استقبال کرد. برای مثال عاملیت انسان، کرامت انسانی، ایجاد برابری، نمونه­هایی از مبانی مختلفی هستند که منحصر به فرد و ناسازگار با دیگری نیستند.

The main objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between critical motivation, altruism and peer caring as the moral foundation of social life. Although the direct relationship between critical consciousness and prosocial involvement has for some time entered the realm of educational research, the mechanisms by which the components of critical consciousness influence behaviour are not clearly defined. Therefore, we investigated the mediating role of the tendency to protect others as a moral foundation in the relationship between critical motivation and altruistic behaviour. The study involved 308 young people aged 18-24. Participants were recruited from various urban high schools and universities, and invited to complete a set of questionnaires. The results emphasise the importance of critical motivation as a predictor of altruistic behaviour. Moreover, the data indicate that the tendency to protect others mediated the effects of critical motivation regarding altruistic behaviour. These results provide a clearer perspective on the process by which critical motivation can influence the behaviour and involvement of young people in different social contexts. The results emphasise especially the importance of developing and stimulating critical motivation in schools in order to increase the active involvement of young people in the current social context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a theoretical framework for demystifying the causes of the dysfunction and disorder of the present Chinese market economy. It is posited that Max Weber's classification of the two potentially conflicting ethics he associates with the behaviour of politicians, the ethic of conviction and the ethic of responsibility offers the basis for a more thorough and accurate account of the dysfunction and disorder within China's current markets and political economy. Indeed, this paper contends that cultural determinism and neo-institutional economics fail to capture the contextual factors influencing the transition from the Maoist era of state control to contemporary China's market led economy (following the opening-up of the country since 1978) than a wider reaching Weberian analysis of the contextual factors involved might achieve. This paper proposes that the distinct ethical foundation for the Chinese market economy is based upon the ethic of conviction, which is the continuity of the philosophical underpinnings of the national ideology during the Maoist era. In turn, this has led to the distortion of the incentives for firms in China to provide high-quality goods and services. This paper also conducts a study of the ethical foundations of the present Chinese economy from the comparative perspectives of Smith's concept of the market economy and from a Confucian perspective. Through this comparative examination, it will be demonstrated that the ethical feature of the modern market economy, stemming from Smith and Confucianism, is based on the ethic of responsibility, which is a mutually opposed concept to the ethic of conviction; therefore, firms whose business ethics are founded upon the ethic of "responsibility" are less prone to deceive consumers as they adhere to a contractual "responsibility" towards the consumer that many Chinese firms still see as of secondary importance as the ethic of "conviction" still dominating the policies, society and culture of the centralist economic post-Maoist state. This paper further reveals that larger firms tend to have more corporate social responsibility due to their established branding effect, thus reflecting a more pervasive sense of the ethic of responsibility and vice versa for firms of a smaller size. This paper concludes with an economic model acting as a quantitative framework which further supports the theories proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has indicated that human morality is associated with cognitive ability. However, morality is not a unified concept but rather is a multi-faceted concept. Moral Foundation Theory suggests that human beings have at least five innate moral foundations: Care/Injury, Fairness/Deception, Loyalty/Betrayal, Authority/Subversion, and Sacred/Fallen. The present study aimed to investigate the associations between these moral values and cognitive ability. A large-scale cross-sectional survey was conducted online, which was completed by a total of 4863 Japanese adults (2922 females, 1935 males, and 6 "other;" M age = 48.78, SD age = 10.93, range 20–70). Correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed that cognitive ability was positively linked to Care/Injury, Fairness/Deception, and Sacred/Fallen. Notably, the positive associations of cognitive ability with Loyalty/Betrayal and Authority/Subversion were statistically significant only for people below the age of approximately 50. These findings indicate that although moral foundations are based on emotions and intuitions, they are substantially associated with cognitive ability. In addition, the positive direction of associations of cognitive ability with Loyalty/Betrayal and Authority/Subversion was inconsistent with previous findings in Western countries, which suggests that these associations are culture-dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hate speech in online users' comments is often targeted toward underprivileged social groups such as immigrants, sexual minorities, and women. Besides the general severity of such offenses, social media users' personal characteristics influence the evaluation of hate comments. We focus on the flagging of hate comments aimed toward women and sexual minorities (i.e., the intention to report such comments as inappropriate to a moderator or platform provider of an online discussion forum). We investigate the influence of user's morality on the intention to flag of such comments. Relying on social role and backlash theory, we scrutinize in how far gender plays a role in flagging intention and in how far people perceive hate comments by women as an act of double deviance. Therefore, we conducted a 2 × 2 online experiment with 457 participants (51% female) recruited through political interest groups and a German news magazine site on Facebook. Results indicate that moral judgments are to some extent gendered as women are more concerned about fairness and avoiding harm to others than men are. Deviant and agentic online behavior by women is judged more strictly than such behavior by men. Results implicate that moderators of online discussions and platform providers should be sensitive to how gender stereotypes influence online discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the extensive research conducted on moral judgment, the role of moral foundations in moral judgment in business has largely been overlooked. Motivated by the increasing concern about the ethical issues observed in China, this study aims to examine the impact of moral foundations on Chinese managers’ moral judgment while simultaneously looking into the role of moral ideology and the level of managers’ moral development. A sample survey was conducted in Shanghai, China, which involved 451 practicing business managers who were pursuing their MBA degree in a nearby university at the time of data collection. Both structural equation modeling (SEM) and hierarchical regression were used in data analyses. The results reveal that individualizing moral foundations and moral idealism have significant positive impacts on moral judgment. Moreover, the findings indicate that moral relativism and levels of mangers’ moral development moderate the relationship between individualizing moral foundations and moral judgment with the impact of individualizing moral foundations being stronger when managers’ relativism is low rather high or when their moral development is high than it is low. The managerial implications of the research and future research direction are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of abuse toward women is a prevalent social problem in most societies. In the present work, we take into consideration the abusive man's point of view with particular reference to the sphere of their morality and set as aims: (a) to show that high levels of self-deception are mediating between an extreme moral worldview, called moral absolutism, and a functional high moral self-concept, (b) to analyze the relation of the five moral foundations (Harm, Fairness, Ingroup, Authority, and Purity) with this moral absolutism, and (c) to test a comprehensive model of the relationships between the individuated variables in the preceding hypotheses. Participants are 264 men convicted of domestic violence offenses, who, having begun court-mandated psychological treatment lasting 12 weeks, have filled out a self-report questionnaire during the second meeting. The results reveal that (a) self-deception is as a full mediator between moral absolutism and moral self-concept in men convicted of domestic violence and in such a way that the more they felt right about their moral beliefs, the more they deceived themselves, and the more they felt good about themselves, (b) the moral foundations could be explaining moral absolutism understood as a rigid moral vision of the world, and (c) the tested model produces satisfying fit indices. Finally, we discuss the applied implications, for example, a key role can be played by the family and the school: Moral socialization begins within the family and there finds the first push that will accompany it the rest of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking advantage of 3 million English-language posts by Facebook public pages, this study answers the following questions: How did the amount of COVID-19 vaccine-related messages evolve? How did the moral expressions in the messages differ among sources? How did both the sources and the five moral foundations in posts influence the number of likes to posts, after controlling for the public page's features (e.g., age, followers)? Our research findings suggest that moral expression is prevalent in the COVID-19 vaccination posts, surpassing nonmoral content. Media sources, despite the high volume of posts, on average elicited fewer likes than all other sources. Although care and fairness were the two most used moral foundations, they were negatively related to likes. In contrast, the least used two moral values of authority and sanctity were positively related to likes. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical contributions and a recommendation of possible interventions. • COVID-19 vaccine posts by Facebook public pages reached the first peak in December 2020 & kept at a high rate till May 2021. • Media sources received 38% of total likes although they created 71% of total posts. • Moral expression is prevalent in the COVID-19 vaccination posts, surpassing nonmoral content. • Although care and fairness were the 2 most used moral foundations, they were negatively related to likes. • The least used 2 moral values of authority and sanctity were positively related to likes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CAD model has identified three major domains of ethics: the ethics of autonomy, the ethics of community and the ethics of divinity. Moral foundation theory (MFT) further postulates that justice- and harm-related morality are moral foundations of autonomous ethics, and violations of these foundations would elicit anger. Ingroup loyalty and authority are the moral foundations of the ethics of community, and violations of these foundations would evoke contempt. Finally, purity is the moral foundation of the ethics of divinity, and violations of this foundation would elicit disgust. The present study was carried out to evaluate the applicability of the CAD model and MFT in China. We measured Chinese participants' moral concerns in and emotional reactions to a representative sample of 156 culturally relevant immoral events. Based on pretest results, each event was categorized into events that are relevant to one of five moral foundations. The participants were presented with descriptions of the events sequentially and reported their emotions to each event using one of the three response formats ( Western emotional faces, emotional words, Asian emotional faces). The results provide consistent support for the applicability of the CAD model and MFT in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I examine whether Moral Foundations Theory can fulfil the promises that Haidt claims for the theory: that it will help in developing new approaches to moral education and to the moral conflicts that divide our diverse society. I argue that, first, the model that Haidt suggests for understanding the plurality of moralities—a shared foundation underlying diverse moralities—does not help to overcome conflicts. A better understanding of the nature and background of moral conflicts can lead to a more respectful attitude towards people with conflicting views, but need not contribute to ending conflicts. Second, I show that pervasive moral conflicts should be dealt with on the level of politics. They require a morality of compromising. Third, I examine why this approach does not seem to work in the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no lack of social and political reasons in favor of public policies oriented toward helping people to become homeowners. In this study, we undertake a normative inquiry into the moral foundation, if any, behind those politically viable and beneficial publicly supported homeownership programs. What we want to examine is whether public support of homeownership is a question of justice or merely a matter of beneficence. In particular, we have reviewed three different portrayals of homeowners: homeowners as right-holders; homeowners as stakeholders; and homeowners as decent citizens. Our position is that it would do more harm than good to defend homeownership as a matter of basic rights; instead, homeownership can be justified by developing Bruce Ackerman's idea of stakeholding and the notion of asset-building as championed by Michael Sherraden. To conceive homeownership as what people deserve as stakeholders as well as a form of lifelong asset that people can rely on when encountering risks and contingencies provide sufficient ground to render public support of homeownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The static structure of politics, comprising organization, institution, law, policy, etc., is not only the physical carrier of the political process but also the objective foundation of political operation. The principle and structure of politics are based on "people", the realistic basis of politics, which renders politics complicated meanings. When we talk about "people", human relations and moral foundation are the factors that cannot be overlooked. The subjects of a certain society are bred by their human relations and moral foundation, and thus their political behaviors are inevitably affected by these two factors. Therefore the structure and rules of modern politics must be based on human relations and moral foundation in a specific society. Having these factors play a positive role in modern politics has a significant meaning for political stability and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

.