Refining and expanding applications of Moral Foundations Theory in consumer psychology
Wayne Johnson, Guilherme A. Ramos, Eric M. VanEpps, Jesse Graham
Journal of Consumer Psychology · 2024 · Volume 34 · Issue 4
Abstract
We set forth an agenda for Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) research in consumer psychology, focusing in particular on four pathways: (1) factoring in multiple identities, including moral identities, to account for contextual elevation or suppression of moral foundations in predictingwhichdecisions consumers moralize andwhen; (2) broadening the methodological usage of MFT to include more targeted causal research as well as expanding the utility of correlational research; (3) increasing discriminant validity between MFT and other constructs by studying moral foundations as individually manipulable and focusing on their incremental predictive validity over and above demographics and related constructs; and (4) recognizing that researcher biases regarding morality can leak into the publication process, necessitating clear distinctions between prescriptive versus descriptive research. These pathways facilitate more precise and stronger predictive validity for applying MFT in consumer psychology, yielding greater theoretical and practical utility across researcher perspectives.
Keywords
ethics and morality
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