Journal article
Moral disagreement in everyday life: An inductive framework for capturing ‘moral order’
Social science research, Vol.127, 103139
03/2025
DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2024.103139
Abstract
The study of morality outside of sociology can be improved, we demonstrate, with greater attention paid to aspects of situated interaction beyond abstract moral principles. We propose an inductive framework that focuses on the bottom-up, situationally framed aspects underlying moral disputes, including types of situational setting, contextual cues, and roles and relationships of involved parties. In clear-cut cases like murder, consensus on right or wrong emerges easily, influenced by either intentions or consequences. However, in complex moral disputes, situational conditions can significantly influence the valence and the degree of consensus of collective evaluation of morality. Drawing on over a million personal narratives from the online forum “Am I The Asshole?” (AITA), we present empirical analyses that build toward a “thick” understanding of moral evaluation (Abend, 2011). Our analyses find great variation in moral disagreements across settings, with those possessing strong situational norms reporting low disagreement about moral culpability; contextual cues lead to predictably divergent moral evaluations; and power disparities between involved parties resulting in blame more commonly assigned to those in power. We discuss the implications of the bottom-up framework for empirical research in sociology of morality.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Moral disagreement in everyday life: An inductive framework for capturing ‘moral order’
- Creators
- Yongren ShiRegan SmockSteven Hitlin
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Social science research, Vol.127, 103139
- Publisher
- ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2024.103139
- ISSN
- 0049-089X
- eISSN
- 1096-0317
- Grant note
- National Science Foundation: 2048670 Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Iowa
We gratefully acknowledge the valuable feedback to the manuscript provided by Freda Lynn and Michael Sauder. We are grateful of the funding support from the National Science Foundation (#2048670) and from the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Iowa.
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 03/2025
- Academic Unit
- Sociology and Criminology
- Record Identifier
- 9984772248002771
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