Sexual Morality: The Cultures and Emotions of Conservatives and Liberals¹

TLDR

The study proposes ways to ease cultural conflicts over homosexuality. The authors interviewed conservatives and liberals about attitudes toward homosexual sex, atypical masturbation, and consensual incest. Conservatives moralized more than liberals, especially toward homosexuality, while liberals focused on autonomy; affective responses, not perceived harm, best predicted judgments.

Abstract

Political conservatives and liberals were interviewed about 3 kinds of sexual acts: homosexual sex, unusual forms of masturbation, and consensual incest between an adult brother and sister. Conservatives were more likely to moralize and to condemn these acts, but the differences were concentrated in the homosexual scenarios and were minimal in the incest scenarios. Content analyses reveal that liberals had a narrow moral domain, largely limited to the “ethics of autonomy” (Shweder, Much, Mahapatra, & Park, 1997) while conservatives had a broader and more multifaceted moral domain. Regression analyses show that, for both groups, moral judgments were best predicted by affective reactions, and were not predicted by perceptions of harmfulness. Suggestions for calming the culture wars over homosexuality are discussed.