Cross-Cultural Validation of the Morality-as-Cooperation Questionnaire in Brazil

Morality-As-Cooperation provides a framework for understanding how moral behaviors and values are rooted in cooperative social interactions, a fundamental aspect of human evolution. To advance our understanding of moral psychology, particularly to test whether MAC is a universally valid construct, it is important to examine it across different countries and cultures. The present investigation is among the first to extend this theory to Brazil. In Study 1 (N = 223), we translated, adapted, and validated the Morality-As-Cooperation Questionnaire for Brazilian Portuguese, assessing its structural validity, reliability, convergent validity, and measurement invariance with the original U.S. sample. Results showed that the Relevance subscale demonstrated good reliability, model fit, and cross-cultural invariance, whereas the Judgment subscale demonstrated acceptable reliability but weaker and less stable properties. In Study 2 (N = 590), we examined discriminant and concurrent validity using a Brazilian general population sample. The Relevance subscale again demonstrated good reliability and measurement invariance across Brazilian and U.S. samples, whereas the Judgment subscale once more showed acceptable reliability but persistent psychometric instability. Together, these findings suggest that Morality-As-Cooperation offers a useful framework for studying morality in Brazil and beyond, although refinement of the Judgment subscale is needed to ensure robust cross-cultural applications.