Ethical Values How Morals Differ by Age and

Ethical Values: How Morals Differ by Age and Religion Justin Laplante, M. A. Clark University

What Am I Interested In? • Morality • Ethics • Religion • Identity • Culture

What does ‘Ethics’ mean to you? "Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong. " "Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs. " "Being ethical is doing what the law requires. " "Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts. " "I don't know what the word means. "

What does ‘Culture’ mean to you? • High culture/Low culture • Beliefs • Practices • American culture? Chinese culture? • Other cultures ▫ Sports (golf vs. football) ▫ Religion

What does ‘Age’ mean to you? • Emerging Adulthood ▫ 18 -29 ▫ Not an adolescent, not quite an adult ▫ Exploration �Love, work, worldviews (what kind of a person do I want to be? ) ▫ Instability ▫ Lack of financial resources

Present Study Measuring Morality Survey Stephen Vaisey, Duke University • Nationally Representative • Asks about morality, ethics, politics, demographics • Multiple scales ▫ Heinz and the drug ▫ Moral dilemma – trolley ▫ Ethical Value Assessment

Demographics • Original Sample: ▫ N = 1652 ▫ 49. 5% female, 50. 5% male ▫ 39% Protestant, 24% Catholic, 3% Jewish, . 1% Muslim

New Sample • Only looking at Protestants (Evangelical or Not) ▫ N = 800 ▫ 50. 3% Evangelical, 49. 3% Mainline ▫ 45. 8% male, 54. 3% female ▫ ▫ 12. 5% Emerging Adult (18 -29) 19. 3% Young Adult (30 -44) 44. 3% Middle Adult (45 -59) 24% Older Adult (60+)

EVA – Ethical Value Assessment • Three Ethics: Autonomy, Community, Divinity • Autonomy: focused on the rights and well-being of individuals • Community: focused on social obligations • Divinity: focused on religious guidelines

EVA – Autonomy • I should take responsibility for myself • I should be fair to other individuals • I should respect other individuals’ rights • I should try to achieve my personal goals

EVA – Community • I should take care of my family • I should be cooperative • I should strive for social harmony • I should know my place or role in a group

EVA – Divinity • I should aim for spiritual salvation • I should aim to live a holy life • I should follow God’s law • I should strive for spiritual purity

Results! • Main effect for cultural group ▫ Autonomy: F(1, 728) = 4. 97, p =. 026 ▫ Community: F(1, 728) = 11. 22, p =. 001 ▫ Divinity: F(1, 728) = 183. 66, p =. 000 Main Effect for Age ▫ Autonomy: F(3, 728) = 5. 27, p =. 001 ▫ Community: F(3, 728) = 3. 68, p =. 012 ▫ Divinity: F(3, 728) = 3. 32, p =. 019

What do they mean? ! • Evangelical vs. Mainline ▫ Evangelicals rank all three ethics higher: autonomy (M = 13. 97 vs. M =13. 70), community (M = 12. 71 vs. M = 12. 17), and divinity (M = 14. 2 vs. M = 10. 75) ▫ Evangelicals tend to rate the ethics as more important

What do they mean? ! (con’t) • Age Groups ▫ Emerging Adults tend to be lower in autonomy than Middle Adults or Older Adults ▫ Young Adults are lower in community than Older Adults ▫ Young Adults are lower in divinity than Middle Adults and Older adults

Is that it? • Preliminary Results: ▫ Mainline Protestants tend to rank autonomy higher, followed by community, and lastly divinity ▫ Evangelical Protestants tend to rank Divinity higher, and then community and autonomy fairly equally ▫ Middle and Older adults tend to rate all the ethics as more important than their Emerging and young Adult counterparts

Discussion • Ethics are not the same for everyone • Different cultural groups and age groups espouse ethics differently • Implications ▫ ▫ Doing counseling? Political arguments? Group conflict? Everyday life?

Limitations • Only used protestants—how might things change with other religious groups? Or Atheists? • Does ‘Evangelical’ mean the same thing to everyone? • Only used Americans—do these ethics translate to other ‘cultures’ (e. g. Thailand, Africa, Russia)? • Cross-sectional, not longitudinal ▫ Can’t tell if these differences are generational, or developmental

Future Directions • Qualitative interviews ▫ How do people make sense of the Three Ethics in their everyday lives? • Different religious and cultural groups • Longitudinal work—how does holding these ethics relate to behavioral outcomes? Health outcomes? • Developmental work—when do these ethics first appear? Which comes first? How do they develop?