Culture and extrinsic moral motives: comparisons of Japan residents and Japanese sojourners in individualistic and loose countries

Abstract

Dominant theories assume that moral judgments reflect the individual’s personal beliefs, but cross-cultural findings on morality suggest that people in collectivistic and tight cultures may rely on social expectations to evaluate morally relevant actions. Moreover, moral attitudes are flexible, and people may adapt moral values in line with what the members of the host culture value. In the current research, self-construal, tightness-looseness, and extrinsic moral motives (perceptions that moral acceptability of a given action is something that people are expected to go along with others) were investigated. Japan residents who had never been abroad (n = 73) and Japanese sojourners in individualistic and loose cultures (the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and Italy; n = 50) participated. Results showed that compared with Japan residents, Japanese sojourners reported lower extrinsic moral motives on morally relevant actions concerning communal values. Cultural tightness, but not self-construal, mediated the relationship between culture and extrinsic moral motives ratings. Among sojourners, assimilation and cultural tightness predicted higher extrinsic moral motives ratings, whereas length of residence negatively predicted the motives. These results show that people in tight cultures may make moral judgments based on what is perceived as socially appropriate, but not on what is personally important. Also, the research highlights the importance of considering the role of extrinsic moral motives in shaping moral judgments.