Moral Foundations as Factors of Socio-Economic Expectations of Russians

Abstract

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objective. </strong>Analysis of the relationship of socio-economic expectations of Russians with moral foundations and socio-demographic characteristics. <br><strong>Background. </strong>Moral foundations theory has proved to be a very fruitful approach to the analysis of psychological factors of political views and preferences, but the problem of the relations between moral foundations and socio-economic expectations has not been considered in past studies.<br><strong>Study design. </strong>A correlation design was used, the data were obtained in a survey of a representative sample of Russian citizens. <br><strong>Participants. </strong>The sample includes 1600 residents of 82 regions of Russia surveyed by the Institute of Psychology of RAS and VCIOM (Russia Public Opinion Research Center) in February 2023, 55% of men and 45% of women aged 18 to 93 years. <br><strong>Measurements. </strong>A demographic questionnaire, moral foundations questionnaire and a questionnaire compiled for this study to measure socio-economic expectations, measuring expectations of: social support, military victories and militarization of public life, justice, economic growth and consumer expectations. <strong>Results. </strong>It is established that the expectations of military victories and placing the economy and public life on a war-footing are largely determined by the commitment to ethics of community, the ethics of autonomy supports the expectations of justice and economic growth. Expectations of social support depend on both the ethics of autonomy and the ethics of community. Adherence to the "liberty" moral foundation is combined with a decrease in military expectations and an increase in consumer expectations regarding the availability of goods and services. Moral foundations mediate the relationship of expectations with socio-demographic factors: age, gender, education, income, type of settlement. This is most evident in the relatively large positive effect of age on expectations of military victories which is completely mediated by the higher ethics of community among older people. <br><strong>Conclusions. </strong>The ethics of community, the ethics of autonomy and the "liberty" moral foundation not only reveal the psychological basis of political and ideological preferences, but also largely explain the social ideals of citizens expressed in their specific socio-economic expectations.</p>