Introduction to Part II: Do Cultural Differences in Moral Psychology Explain Political Conflict on Climate Change?

In Part II of this course we will consider how, if at all, discoveries in moral psychology can inform an understanding of political conflict and routes to their democratic resolution.

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Notes

In Part II of this course we will consider how, if at all, discoveries in moral psychology can inform an understanding of political conflict and routes to their democratic resolution.

Although Part II is related to Part I, I will present it as a fresh start. Nearly all of it should make sense independently of anything you learned in Part I.

We will focus on political conflict over climate change. This is also the part of the course where we will consider cultural differences in moral psychology. The overall question for Part II is, Do cultural differences in moral psychology explain political conflict on climate change?

Fact to Be Explained

People who identify as socially liberal rather than socially conservative are less likely to deny facts about anthropogenic climate change and more likely to express concern about the effects of climate change.

This is true in many, but not all, countries. The US is an extreme case, as the Republican Party denies anthropogenic climate change and has published a manifesto criticizing Democrats for treating it as a severe threat (Båtstrand, 2015). Although few mainstream political parties are so extreme, the split between liberal and conservative voters exists in many countries:

‘Recent research finds a notable political cleavage on climate change views within the general publics of the United States, Australia, Canada, the UK, and a range of other countries around the world, with citizens on the left reporting greater belief in, concern about, and support for action on climate change than citizens on the right do. [...] such an ideological divide on climate change views was not found among the general publics of former Communist countries, [...] the ‘post-Communist effect.’ (McCright, Dunlap, & Marquart-Pyatt, 2016, p. 351)

Simplified Preview

We will approach this topic by working through Feinberg & Willer (2013).

In outline, Feinberg and Willer argue that cultural differences in moral psychology do explain political conflict on climate change on the basis of five considerations.

These five are considerations are:

1. ‘Moral convictions and the emotions they evoke shape political attitudes’ (see Do Ethical Attitudes Shape Political Behaviours?)
2. There are at least two foundational domains of human morality, including harm and purity. Also, Moral Foundations Theory is true (see Moral Pluralism: Beyond Harm; Moral Foundations Theory: An Approach to Cultural Variation; and Operationalising Moral Foundations Theory)
3. ‘liberals and conservatives possess different moral profiles’ (see Liberals vs Conservatives)
4. ‘liberals express greater levels of environmental concern than do conservatives in part because liberals are more likely to view environmental issues in moral terms’
5. ‘exposing conservatives to proenvironmental appeals based on moral concerns that uniquely resonate with them will lead them to view the environment in moral terms and be more supportive of proenvironmental efforts.’

We will examine each consideration in turn.

The lectures use Feinberg & Willer (2013) as a guide. Another good source for an overview of the issues is Markowitz & Shariff (2012).

Glossary

References