Colombian Morality: Contextual Moral Dilemmas according to Psychosocial and Demographic Conditions

Abstract

Actual academic works on human morality are interested in contextualization of moral dilemmas and the influence of sociodemographic and psychosocial variables on moral judgment. This non-experimental research, with a correlative cross-sectional design, sought to find the divergences between the response to three moral dilemmas, which evaluate the values of deserving, loyalty and freedom according to sex, academic level, psychopathic traits, religious beliefs, socio-economic stratum and cognitive response style. Participants were 207 people (88 men, 118 women) with varied sociodemographic characteristics. An instrument designed and adapted for the occasion was applied, bringing together the construction of contextual moral dilemmas, the Levenson Psychopathy scale (LPSP), and the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). Significant differences were found according to the type of dilemma, mediated by sex and psychopathic traits. This results contribute to the contextualization of moral dilemmas, showing how personal and social characteristics affect moral judgment.