How to be Good: An Exploration of the Moral Circle and its Relationship with Wealth and Individualism

The goal of this project is to explore the relationship between altruistic motivation, wealth, and ideological individualism. It comprises three parts:

Part 1: The Moral Circle

A cross-disciplinary exploration of the underlying motivation to act altruistically in terms of the moral circle (the group we consider worthy of moral consideration).

Aim: to form a logically coherent, empirically supported conception of the moral circle.

RQ: How should the moral circle be understood and measured in altruism research?

Methodology: A systematic literature search will be conducted of accessible philosophy and psychology databases for articles and books using keywords like "moral", "circle" and "expansiveness". Relevant materials will be closely read and critically analysed to arrive at a logically and empirically justified conceptualisation of the moral circle suitable for altruism research. I will consider the validity of existing measures, if circle size is trait or state, and what constitutes moral circle membership.

Part 2: The Social Life of Altruism

A qualitative interview study using discourse analysis to examine how altruists talk about their moral behaviour and themselves.

Aim: To explore the ways in which altruists construct their identity, morality and altruistic behaviour.

RQ1: How do altruists construct altruism and their own identity? Does this differ from social norms?

RQ2: How do altruists construct their motivation to behave altruistically? How are these constructions used and is their usage influenced by ideology?

RQ3: What do these constructions tell us about the role of personal cost in altruism?

Method: A purposive opportunity sample of UK altruists will be recruited from 4 groups including wealth-independent, apolitical and anonymous altruistic acts.

Unspecified organ donors

COVID-19 volunteers

People who risked arrest for activism for common good causes

People who engaged in acts of spontaneous heroism (e.g. impulsive life-saving, ethical walk-outs)

~10 participants will be recruited for each group totalling n=~40. Participants will undertake semi-structured interviews concerning their identity, motivation and altruism. Analysis will follow the principles of critical discursive psychology.

Part 3. Wealth, Individualism and the Moral Circle

A between-subjects survey study investigating the relationship of wealth and individualism to altruistic motivation.

Aim: to explore the relationships between wealth and individualism and moral circle size.

RQ1: Is there a relationship between wealth and moral circle size? Individualism and moral circle size?

RQ2: Do wealth and individualism interact to affect moral circle size?

Method: As effect sizes in previous research into the link between wealth and morality have been small-medium (Piff et al., 2010, 2013), an opportunity sample of n=262 will be recruited (a =.05, 1-B = .95, p=.20). Confidence intervals for effect sizes will be calculated using bootstrap resampling. To ensure representation across the wealth spectrum, recruitment will use both targeted advertising and online tools (e.g. Prolific).

Participants will take established measures of objective and subjective wealth, individualism and moral circle size. Other possible correlates of moral circle size that might vary systematically with wealth/individualism will be identified and measured following a systematic cross-disciplinary literature search.

Relationships between wealth x moral circle size and individualism x moral circle size will be tested using bivariate correlations. Multiple regression will be used to test whether wealth + individualism influences moral circle size and to control confounding variables, and path analysis to explore directed dependencies between variables.