The Revised Moral Foundations in Iran: Validation and Sociodemographic Correlates of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire-2

As a morally pluralistic theory going beyond classic notions of morality as harm and justice, Moral foundations theory (MFT) has inspired a substantial volume of studies since its inception. The theory was recently refined, leading to the development of a second version of its correspondent scale, namely Moral Foundations Questionnaire-2 (MFQ-2), which is aimed at assessing Care, Equality, Proportionality, Loyalty, Authority and Purity as the six foundations underlying morality according to the revised MFT. Given the low internal consistencies of a number of foundations in the former version of the scale (MFQ-1), this study aimed to examine psychometric properties of the Persian MFQ-2, including its convergent validity with MFQ-1. Data were collected from two separate samples (N1 = 392, N2 = 989). Internal consistencies of the subscales were acceptable and showed an improvement over MFQ-1. Exploratory factor analysis of MFQ-2 items in sample 1 led to four factors, with Loyalty, Authority and Purity items loading on one, and Care, Equality and Proportionality items loading on distinct factors each. Confirmatory factor analysis in sample 2 supported the factorial validity of the postulated six-foundation structure for MFQ-2. With respect to the grouping of moral foundations, exploratory graph analysis in sample 1 yielded one cluster, which in a follow-up CFA in sample 2 was found to be comparably fit to two posited bidimensional (referring to individual vs. group -related moral concern) alternatives. MFQ-2 foundations were most strongly related to their corresponding MFQ-1 counterparts, confirming the scale’s convergent validity. We also replicated and went beyond the existing literature on sociodemographic correlates of moral foundations. In particular, Proportionality had the weakest relations to religiosity and political orientation among all foundations. We close by proposing alternate explanations for the findings and discussing implications of the results for MFQ-2 and MFT.