Do moral values change with the seasons?

Hohm, Ian; O'Shea, Brian A.; Schaller, Mark

Abstract

Moral values guide consequential attitudes and actions. Here, we report evidence of seasonal variation in Americans’ endorsement of some—but not all—moral values. Studies 1 and 2 examined a decade of data from the United States (total N = 232,975) and produced consistent evidence of a biannual seasonal cycle in values pertaining to loyalty, authority, and purity (“binding” moral values)—with strongest endorsement in spring and autumn and weakest endorsement in summer and winter—but not in values pertaining to care and fairness (“individualizing” moral values). Study 2 also provided some evidence that the summer decrease, but not the winter decrease, in binding moral value endorsement was stronger in regions with greater seasonal extremity. Analyses on an additional year of US data (study 3; n = 24,199) provided further replication and showed that this biannual seasonal cycle cannot be easily dismissed as a sampling artifact. Study 4 provided a partial explanation for the biannual seasonal cycle in Americans’ endorsement of binding moral values by showing that it was predicted by an analogous seasonal cycle in Americans’ experience of anxiety. Study 5 tested the generalizability of the primary findings and found similar seasonal cycles in endorsement of binding moral values in Canada and Australia (but not in the United Kingdom). Collectively, results from these five studies provide evidence that moral values change with the seasons, with intriguing implications for additional outcomes that can be affected by those values (e.g., intergroup prejudices, political attitudes, legal judgments).

Citation

Hohm, I., O'Shea, B. A., & Schaller, M. (2024). Do moral values change with the seasons?. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(33), Article e2313428121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2313428121

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 7, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Aug 5, 2024
• Publication Date: Aug 13, 2024
• Deposit Date: Sep 25, 2024
• Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Print ISSN: 0027-8424
• Electronic ISSN: 1091-6490
• Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 121
• Issue: 33
• Article Number: e2313428121
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2313428121
• Keywords: Female, Male, Morals, United States, emotion, Social Values, moral foundations theory, ecology, Humans, Seasons, seasonality, anxiety
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/38629593
• Publisher URL: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2313428121