Association of the Individualizing and Binding Moral Foundations with Conceptions of Motherland in Russia
Patriotism and attitude to the motherland attract much interest of researchers in the field of social sciences, although psychological foundations of these phenomena have not been sufficiently studied. On the basis of Moral Foundations Theory (by J. Haidt) we hypothesized that the characteristics of the moral sphere may be associated with some ideas about the motherland. In particular, binding moral foundations (including loyalty, authority and purity) which are more typical for conservatives should support positive patriotic ideas about the homeland. The low level of binding moral foundations can be related with a critical attitude towards the motherland, the presence of negative assessments of their country. This assumption is supported by the results of past studies of patriotism among individuals with different ideological views. The individualizing moral foundations dominating among liberals can be associated with a less global and narrower view of the motherland, which is linked with concepts of “family” and “home” rather than “society” or “country”. The aim of this study was to analyze the association between the individualizing and binding moral foundations with the content of ideas about the motherland. The important task of the study was to develop the Russian version of the moral foundations dictionary, which is necessary for analyzing the moral content of ideas about the motherland. To test the hypotheses we conducted a paperpencil and online survey, obtained data included the answers on Moral Foundations Questionnaire and textual answers characterizing the image of the motherland. The sample comprised 831 people (72% women) from 11 regions of Russia. Text responses were processed via computer content analysis in the LIWC program (by J. Pennebaker) using the moral foundations dictionary (all categories) and the general dictionary (10 categories most relevant to the problem). To analyze the relations between the results of content analysis and MFQ questionnaire we calculated correlations of the individualizing and binding moral foundations with the presence or absence of each category in the participants' responses. The results of the correlation analysis indicate that the individualizing moral foundations supports relatively narrow ideas about the motherland, associated with family and home, while people with a high level of binding moral foundations associate the motherland mostly with society and religion. Binding moral foundations support a positive image of the motherland, which is manifested in the more frequent use of positive assessments and avoidance of negative evaluations. Persons with a high level of binding moral foundations tend to ignore negative phenomena in the country, reflecting a violation of the individualizing moral norms (care and fairness). In particular, they less often mention violations of human rights and the poverty of the country's inhabitants. The necessary condition analysis revealed the effect of binding moral foundations as a necessary but insufficient condition for maintaining a positive image of the motherland and the absence of negative ideas about it.