Political views, morality, and attitudes toward marijuana legalization

Resumo

In this paper, we examine why attitudes toward marijuana legalization are split along ideological lines. In a survey, we found that conservatives were more likely to oppose this policy partly because of their greater reliance on the authority and purity foundations of morality. Curiously, concerns about harm were found to play no role in determining attitudes toward marijuana legalization, even though those who were against this policy frequently explained their views with harm-related accounts. In an experiment, we found that opponents of legalization were more likely to adopt a more favorable view towards it when exposed to arguments and sources that were consistent with the authority and purity dimensions of morality. Precisely, subjects who initially opposed legalization were more likely to change their attitudes when exposed to arguments that were based on the purity (vs. harm) foundation of morality, and when they were led to believe that these arguments were given by religious (vs. business) leaders.

Ficha do documento

Tipo

Dissertação

Ano

2017

Instituição

Fundação Getulio Vargas

Fonte

Repositório da FGV

Idioma

Inglês

Acesso

Acesso aberto

Identificador

oai:repositorio.fgv.br:10438/24098

Temas

Administração Pública

Palavras-chave

MoralityMoral foundations theoryMarijuana legalizationAttitude changeTeoria das fundações moraisLegalização da maconhaMoralidadeAdministração públicaDrogas - Descriminalização - Aspectos morais e éticosMaconhaJulgamento (Ética)Atitude (Psicologia) - MudançaProcesso decisório