Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department/Program

Psychology

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Michael Bixter

Committee Member

Laura Lakusta

Committee Member

John Paul Wilson

Abstract

Moral judgments play an important role in social interactions, intergroup conflicts, and the evaluation of behaviors. Moral Foundations Theory proposes that moral reasoning is grounded in five psychological foundations: authority, loyalty, purity, harm, and fairness. Prior research has shown that individuals form stereotypes about different groups and the moral foundations they prioritize, as well as greatly exaggerate the perceived moral differences between groups. The present study examines adult age differences and the stereotyping of moral foundations by investigating whether individuals accurately perceive moral differences between younger and older adults. Participants (N = 300; 100 participants per perspective condition) completed a scenario-based moral judgment task using vignettes where they either responded as themselves, as a typical young adult (approximately 25 years old), or as a typical older adult (approximately 65 years old). This thus allowed us to investigate three main research questions: (RQ1) whether age differences will be observed in the moral judgment of individualizing (harm, fairness) (RQ1a) and binding (authority, loyalty, purity) (RQ1b) actions, (RQ2) whether differences will be observed in participants’ stereotyping of younger versus older adults moral judgments, and (RQ3) the extent participants’ age relate to any moral stereotyping found in RQ2. Results indicated a marginal positive association between age and individualizing (harm and fairness) moral judgments in the self condition, suggesting that older adults may place slightly more emphasis on the harm and fairness concerns. There was no significant relationship between binding (authority, loyalty, and purity) moral judgments and age. However, participants made more severe moral judgments when imagining the perspective of older adults compared to younger adults, with stronger effects in the binding foundation. Moderation analyses further revealed that participant age influenced stereotyping patterns for individual judgments, but not binding judgments.

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