抄録
Previous studies have shown that uncertainty and threat promote politically conservative choices, and that political ideology is also strongly associated with moral foundations. Based on these findings, by manipulating the levels of uncertainty and threat to the future, the current study tested Japanese undergraduates and examined the effects of perceived uncertainty and threat on cognitive motives and moral foundations. To begin with, participants responded to their political attitudes, which were included as a covariate in the following analysis. Two weeks later, participants were randomly assigned to a threat condition or a control condition. In the threat condition, participants were asked to read a brief article describing changes in social system regarding the immigration of foreign workers, which would be likely to evoke the feelings of uncertainty and threat for Japanese university students. In the control condition, participants were asked to read another brief article on the immigration of foreign workers, which would be unlikely to accompany threat. Participants also responded to questions about their cognitive needs and moral foundations. Results showed that compared to those in the control condition, those in the threat condition judged moral deviance behavior to be more wrong across all moral foundations. However, the threat manipulation did not affect participants’ cognitive needs measured by the need for cognitive closure. These findings suggest that threat would play a significant role in individuals’ moral judgment on wrongness.
