The Moral Mosaic: Characteristics Predict Likelihood of Personal Ethical Decisions and Prosocial Behavior

Abstract

This research provides a multidimensional approach to predicting unethical or prosocial behavior by identifying the underlying factor structure of 35 well-established scales linked to moral behavior. A novel measure of whether moral values have inherent meaning (Heavy-Light) was also included. Over 400 participants completed all 36 scales. Factor analysis yielded 6 factors: moral agency, dogmatism, empathy, avoidant emotionality, lightness, and moral reductionism. Using multiple regression, the 6 factors along with the Big 5 traits were tested as predictors of self-reported unethical behaviors and a single item measure of prosocial donation. moral agency, dogmatism, and moral reductionism negatively predicted unethical behavior, whereas empathy positively predicted prosocial donation. Additionally, dogmatism served as a negative predictor of prosocial donation. As a final step, a 105-item short-form measure of the 6 factors was created by selecting 3 items from each of the 36 scales. Both the long-form and short-form factor models explained more variance than the Big 5 personality traits in unethical behavior and prosocial donation. With further validation, this short-form moral mosaic may be useful as a multidimensional predictor of moral behavior