The American Chill Pill: Tracking Demographic Changes in US Moral Rationalizations (1995-2020)

Researchers have found that defense mechanisms are linked to moral reasoning. Age and sex are associated with defense utilization, wherein older individuals use mature defense mechanisms, and females use internalizing defenses. Research has identified that morality in society is declining. The present study evaluated the association of age, sex, and wave to rationalization in a situation involving moral reasoning. Age was hypothesized to correlate negatively with rationalizations, and females were hypothesized to utilize more rationalizations. Rationalization utilization was hypothesized to increase over time. Differences were found by age, suggesting older Americans were least likely to rationalize. Rationalization utilization increased over time among all ages. An interaction was found between age and wave, wherein the combination of variables predicted a participant’s mean rationalizations. This study fills a gap in the literature by examining how rationalizations change in a nation, helping to understand how society’s views on wrongdoings change with time.