Perceived Stress and Society-Wide Moral Judgment
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. The Societal Relevance of Moral Judgment Research and Its Relationship with Perceived Stress
1.2. Neo-Kohlbergian Approach to Moral Judgment
Previous Research on Perceived Stress and the Neo-Kohlbergian Approach to Moral Judgment
1.3. Utilitarian-Deontological (U-D) Moral Judgments
1.3.1. Perceived Stress and Utilitarian-Deontological Moral Judgment
1.3.2. Measuring Utilitarian-Deontological Moral Judgments
1.4. Research Goals and Hypotheses
1.4.1. Perceived Stress and Utilitarian-Deontological Moral Judgments
1.4.2. Perceived Stress and the Neo-Kohlbergian Approach to Moral Judgment
1.4.3. Sex as a Controlling Variable
2. Method
2.1. Procedure
2.2. Participants
2.3. Materials
2.3.1. CNI Model
2.3.2. The Behavioral Defining Issue Test
2.3.3. The Perceived Stress Scale-10
2.3.4. Attention Check
2.4. Data Analysis
2.4.1. Correlation Analysis
2.4.2. Main Effect While Controlling for Sex
2.4.3. Exploring Quadratic Relationship
2.4.4. The Mediation Role of Moral Reasoning Development
3. Results
3.1. Perceived Stress and Neo-Kohlbergian Approach to Moral Judgment
3.2. Perceived Stress and the CNI Model Materials
3.3. The Mediation Effect of Moral Reasoning Schema on Perceived Stress and CNI Model
4. Discussion
4.1. Findings About Neo-Kohlbergian Approach to Moral Judgment
4.1.1. The Positive Correlation Between Perceived Stress and PI Schema
4.1.2. Perceived Stress and MN/PC Schema
4.1.3. Sex Differences
4.2. Findings About the CNI Model
4.2.1. Previous Studies on the Relationship Between Perceived Stress and Utilitarian-Deontological Moral Dilemma Judgment
4.2.2. Stress-Related Variables Lead to More Utilitarian Judgments
4.2.3. Other Observations
4.3. The Mediation Effect Between PSS and Norm Sensitivity Through PI Schema
4.4. Societal Changes and Generational Shifts—Another Potential Explanation of the Findings
4.5. Implications
4.5.1. Informing Moral Education Programs
4.5.2. Rising Stress Levels and Psychological Concerns
4.5.3. Societal Trends and the Need for Moral Education
4.6. Limitations and Future Directions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
U-D | Utilitarian-deontological |
PI | Personal interest schema |
MN | Maintaining norm schema |
PC | Postconventional schema |
C | Sensitivity to Consequence |
N | Sensitivity to Norm |
I | Inaction Preference |
PSS | Perceived Stress Scale-10 |
bDIT | behavioral Defining Issues Test |
IRB | Institutional Review Board |
VIF | Variance inflation factors |
LR | Likelihood Ratio |
AIC | Akaike Information Criterion |
BIC | Bayesian Information Criterion |
IV | Independent variable |
DV | Dependent variable |
M | Mediator |
CI | Confidence intervals |
1 | To offer examples, some features that can influence the directive nature of a dilemmas include an extreme kill-save ratio—sacrificing one person to save a hundred—and the degree of self-involvement, such as whether the responder is directly involved in the sacrifice or among those being saved (Rosas et al., 2019). |
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Percentage of “Yes” Answers | Consequence Effect | Norm Effect | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Prescriptive Norm | Proscriptive Norm | ||||||||
Dilemma Name | Study No. | Benefits Greater Than Cost | Benefits Smaller Than Cost | Benefits Greater Than Cost | Benefits Smaller Than Cost | F | p | F | p |
7. Dialysis | 1a | 84.47% | 44.72% | 54.04% | 21.12% | 80.04 | <0.001 | 43.74 | <0.001 |
1b | 82.49% | 45.20% | 53.67% | 20.34% | 82.33 | <0.001 | 55.39 | <0.001 | |
8. Investor | 1a | 78.88% | 64.60% | 28.57% | 14.29% | 22.65 | <0.001 | 112.91 | <0.001 |
1b | 80.79% | 67.23% | 28.25% | 13.56% | 25.40 | <0.001 | 168.71 | <0.001 | |
9. Tyrant Killing | 1a | 77.64% | 52.80% | 45.34% | 23.60% | 41.09 | <0.001 | 38.33 | <0.001 |
1b | 74.01% | 62.15% | 46.33% | 26.55% | 23.94 | <0.001 | 50.07 | <0.001 | |
10. Rwanda | 1a | 88.20% | 82.61% | 26.09% | 16.15% | 9.84 | 0.002 | 235.45 | <0.001 |
1b | 86.44% | 83.62% | 30.51% | 20.34% | 7.97 | 0.005 | 233.65 | <0.001 | |
11. Mercy Killing | 1a | 88.20% | 61.49% | 40.99% | 9.94% | 65.47 | <0.001 | 196.32 | <0.001 |
1b | 83.05% | 60.45% | 40.11% | 16.38% | 48.45 | <0.001 | 132.48 | <0.001 | |
12. Nazi Occupation | 1a | 88.82% | 80.12% | 14.91% | 13.04% | 5.40 | 0.021 | 339.26 | <0.001 |
1b | 83.62% | 76.84% | 20.90% | 15.25% | 7.37 | 0.007 | 263.63 | <0.001 |
Variable | Mean | SD | n | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Moral Reasoning Schema | 1. PI | 22.98% | 0.16 | 337 | 1 | ||||||
2. MN | 24.80% | 0.18 | 337 | −0.340 ** | 1 | ||||||
3. PC | 52.21% | 0.20 | 337 | −0.502 ** | −0.643 ** | 1 | |||||
Moral Dilemma Judgment | 4. C | −0.80 | 0.59 | 337 | 0.09 | −0.206 ** | 0.116 * | 1 | |||
5. N | 0.40 | 0.67 | 337 | −0.229 ** | 0.201 ** | 0.002 | −0.367 ** | 1 | |||
6. I | 0.40 | 0.56 | 337 | 0.041 | −0.049 | 0.012 | 0.152 ** | −0.317 ** | 1 | ||
Stress | 7. PSS | 20.91 | 6.96 | 337 | 0.107 * | −0.053 | 0.039 | 0.116 * | −0.188 ** | −0.041 | 1 |
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Chen, Y.; Lu, J.; Walker, D.I.; Ma, W.; Glenn, A.L.; Han, H. Perceived Stress and Society-Wide Moral Judgment. Eur. J. Investig. Health Psychol. Educ. 2025, 15, 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe15060106
Chen Y, Lu J, Walker DI, Ma W, Glenn AL, Han H. Perceived Stress and Society-Wide Moral Judgment. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education. 2025; 15(6):106. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe15060106
Chicago/Turabian StyleChen, Yi, Junfei Lu, David I. Walker, Wenchao Ma, Andrea L. Glenn, and Hyemin Han. 2025. "Perceived Stress and Society-Wide Moral Judgment" European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education 15, no. 6: 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe15060106
APA StyleChen, Y., Lu, J., Walker, D. I., Ma, W., Glenn, A. L., & Han, H. (2025). Perceived Stress and Society-Wide Moral Judgment. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, 15(6), 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe15060106