Food has become a prominent object of everyday moral discussions. This study examines how gender, political orientation, and country of origin are connected to moral foundation endorsement in food-related moral thinking. Respondents were university students (N = 371) from Finland, Denmark, and Italy who completed a word association task, in that given stimulus words were "ethical food" and "unethical food." Results showed a presence of five moral foundations in the data, and indicated high prevalence of the Purity/Sanctity foundation in food-related moral thinking. As expected, gender differences emerged in the endorsement of the Fairness/Reciprocity and the Purity/Sanctity foundations. Also, between-country differences emerged in four of the five moral foundations, indicating that even within Europe countries may differ from each other in their endorsement of foundations. The results also verified the previously found effect of political orientation in three of the five moral foundations, although the study used a completely new and different type of method compared with previous studies. The study concludes by proposing more cross-national comparative studies where the focus is on the specific objects of moral thinking

Mäkiniemi, J., PIRTTILÄ BACKMAN, A., Pieri, M. (2013). The Endorsement of the Moral Foundations in Food-Related Moral Thinking in Three European Countries. JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL & ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS, 26(4), 771-786 [10.1007/s10806-012-9401-3].

The Endorsement of the Moral Foundations in Food-Related Moral Thinking in Three European Countries

PIERI, MICHELLE
2013

Abstract

Food has become a prominent object of everyday moral discussions. This study examines how gender, political orientation, and country of origin are connected to moral foundation endorsement in food-related moral thinking. Respondents were university students (N = 371) from Finland, Denmark, and Italy who completed a word association task, in that given stimulus words were "ethical food" and "unethical food." Results showed a presence of five moral foundations in the data, and indicated high prevalence of the Purity/Sanctity foundation in food-related moral thinking. As expected, gender differences emerged in the endorsement of the Fairness/Reciprocity and the Purity/Sanctity foundations. Also, between-country differences emerged in four of the five moral foundations, indicating that even within Europe countries may differ from each other in their endorsement of foundations. The results also verified the previously found effect of political orientation in three of the five moral foundations, although the study used a completely new and different type of method compared with previous studies. The study concludes by proposing more cross-national comparative studies where the focus is on the specific objects of moral thinking
Abstract in rivista
Denmark; Finland; Food; Italy; Moral foundations; Word associations
English
2013
26
4
771
786
none
Mäkiniemi, J., PIRTTILÄ BACKMAN, A., Pieri, M. (2013). The Endorsement of the Moral Foundations in Food-Related Moral Thinking in Three European Countries. JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL & ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS, 26(4), 771-786 [10.1007/s10806-012-9401-3].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/41885
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