As far as our moral attitudes are concerned, we are remarkably unlike the Europeans.
We are not like Europeans. At least when it comes to our moral attitudes. This is evidenced by the results of a study by the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Harvard University (USA). Participants were asked to answer the questions of the Moral Sense Test*. It wasn’t always easy. What to prefer: to help a person who has fallen on the rails, who is about to be hit by an uncontrolled wagon? But then the people in the car will die, falling into the abyss. Keep out? A man on the rails will die, but the car will slow down and the passengers will be saved. And if you need to push a person onto the tracks to stop the train? Men and women from Russia were less likely than Europeans to make categorical judgments, they sought to exclude extreme options rather than make an unambiguous choice. According to the authors, this shows the “Eastern” side of our mentality: the flexibility of judgment, a tendency to doubt and reflection**. Psychologist Yevgeny Osin has a different opinion: “For most of the XNUMXth century, we were taught to live according to the principle “the end justifies the means.” For the sake of a good cause, the country’s leadership decided to kill millions of people without asking their consent. It is not surprising that many in Russia have simply lost their internal guidelines and now do not very clearly distinguish between good and evil.
Pass the tests
- What are your moral principles?
* You can take the test (in English) at moral.wjh.harvard.edu
** Journal of Cognition and Culture, 2013, vol. 13.