Global orientations and moral foundations: a cross-cultural examination among American, Chinese, and international students

Although cross-cultural moral psychology is a rapidly growing research field in the past decades, little is known with respect to how human morality is affected by the process of globalization. The present research attempts to fill this gap by establishing a conceptual and empirical link between global orientations and moral foundations across three cultural populations. American domestic college students, Chinese domestic college students, and Chinese international college students completed a set of measures that assessed their global orientations (multicultural acquisition and ethnic protection), moral foundations, political affiliations, openness to experience, and demographic information. Results indicated that 1) multicultural acquisition was positively associated with participants’ endorsements of individualizing and binding values while ethnic protection was positively linked only to binding values; 2) The link between ethnic protection and individualizing foundations was moderated by culture; 3) sociocultural adaptation partially mediated the relationship between ethnic protection and binding values. These findings advance our understanding of the interrelations between individuals’ social psychological responses to globalization and their explicit value endorsements.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Xiaomeng H