The moral matrix that influences the way people vote

Moral Foundations Theory shows that deep divides between Liberal and Conservative voters may rest on differences in how they prioritise moral issues

How do we know the difference between right and wrong? Are we born with an innate sense of morality or do we learn it from those around us? Which moral issues do we believe should be legislated and which left down to individuals to decide?

Jonathan Haidt and colleagues have reviewed literature from a diverse range of disciplines and cultures and done a great deal of field-work to try and answer these questions. Their conclusion is that the content of moral thinking is probably learned but that we are born already primed to think about morality along five channels (taken from http://moralfoundations.org):