Validation of the Russian version of the realistic moral vignettes for studies of moral judgments.

Abstract

Moral judgments and behavior are shaped by individual experiences and cultural environments. In two online studies, we used a standard set of moral vignettes to examine the generalizability of factor structure of moral judgments originally identified in American samples (Knutson et al. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 5, 378-384, 2010; Kruepke et al. Behavior Research Methods, 50, 922-936, 2018) by testing two independent samples of the Russian population (Study 1, N = 247; Study 2, N = 223). In Study 1, the exploratory factor analysis revealed three components that accounted for most of the variance: norm violation, social affect, and intention. In Study 2, the factor structure of the identified moral components was validated by confirmatory factor analysis. Latent profile analysis revealed five distinct profiles of moral scenarios: Peccadillo, Illegal-Antisocial, Controversial Act, Prosocial, and a novel profile specific to our Russian samples - Social Conflict - as compared to the previous study of the American population. These findings suggest fundamental similarities in moral judgment processes across cultures while also highlighting culture-specific patterns in moral scenario categorization. This study also provides researchers with a battery of real-life experience-derived vignettes that can be used in cross-cultural studies of moral judgment.