Moral expansiveness short form: Validity and reliability of the MESx

Moral expansiveness refers to the range of entities (human and non-human) deemed worthy of moral concern and treatment. Previous research has established that the Moral Expansiveness Scale (MES) is a powerful predictor of altruistic moral decision-making and captures a unique dimension of moral cogn...

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Published inPloS one Vol. 13; no. 10; p. e0205373
Main Authors Crimston, Daniel, Hornsey, Matthew J, Bain, Paul G, Bastian, Brock
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 18.10.2018
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Adult
Altruism
Analysis
Animals
Biology and Life Sciences
Boundaries
Cognition
Decision Making
Earth Sciences
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Expansion
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Moral conditions
Morality
Morals
Psychological tests
Psychometrics - methods
Reliability
Reproducibility of Results
Social psychology
Social Sciences
Studies
Surveys and Questionnaires
Universalism
Validity
Values
Young Adult
Australia
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Summary:Moral expansiveness refers to the range of entities (human and non-human) deemed worthy of moral concern and treatment. Previous research has established that the Moral Expansiveness Scale (MES) is a powerful predictor of altruistic moral decision-making and captures a unique dimension of moral cognition. However, the length of the full MES may be restrictive for some researchers. Here we establish the reliability and validity of a reduced moral expansiveness scale, the MESx. Consistent with the full version, the MESx is strongly associated with (but not reducible to) theoretically related constructs, such as endorsement of universalism values, identification with all humanity, and connectedness to nature. The MESx also predicted measures of altruistic moral decision-making to the same degree as the full MES. Further, the MESx passed tests of discriminant validity, was unrelated to political conservatism (unlike the full MES), only mildly associated with the tendency to provide socially desirable responses, and produced moderate reliability over time. We conclude that the MESx is a psychometrically valid alternative for researchers requiring a short measure of moral expansiveness.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0205373