A new study by researchers at the University of Queensland has revealed a method of predicting the strength of human convictions using the Moral Expansiveness Scale (MES) in order to quantify the reach of a person's moral boundaries.
"We performed six studies with the MES and it uniquely predicted willingness to engage in behaviors at a personal cost," Daniel Crimston, who introduced the MES, said in a press release. "One test asked 316 participants from the United States to imagine they lived in a country ruled by a powerful dictator who was planning to annihilate eight specific groups."
"The targeted groups included people from the participant's hometown, people from Africa, people with intellectual disabilities, prisoners, animals and trees," he added.
After being introduced to the targeted groups, the participants were asked to determine the number of people or objects in each group they would let be killed before they would sacrifice themselves instead. Using the MES, the team was able to accurately predict the responses of each participant.
MES scores for each participant were obtained by determining the composition of four moral boundaries - the Inner Circle, Outer Circle, Fringes of Concern and Outside the Moral Sphere.
While the Inner Circle represents entities that the participants feel a strong personal responsibility for, the Outer Circle represents entities that, although they possess concern for, they feel no strong sense of personal responsibility.
Conversely, entities on the Fringe are those deemed to deserve a minimal level of moral concern and entities Outside the Moral Sphere do not receive any level of moral concern at all.
"The MES recognizes - and factors in - the difference between the breadth of concern, the depth of concern for each entity, and the consideration of personal cost," Crimston said. "A less morally expansive person restricts their concern to things considered close, such as family. A more morally expansive person extends care to distant entities such as plants and animals."
Although the team claims that there are no relationships between the MES and age, sex, politics or religion, they note that there are relationships between the scale and "stigmatized individuals, high-sentience animals and the environment."
Numerous other tests within the study used the MES to predict participant responses to a variety of other situations including the likelihood of agreeing to a kidney transplant or supporting a chimpanzee claiming legal personhood status.
The findings were published in the Jan. 11 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
