The association between moral foundation and political orientation in Australia:
Do the American studies carry over to an Australian Population?
HAYDEN TIPPING -100594202

Swinburne University of Technology
Psych 101-Assesment 1
Due Date: 31st August 2015
Tutorial: Thursday 4.30-5.30

Introduction
Political preferences seem an obvious topic of research, as the findings of such research are highly sought after. As such any research relating to what motivates political orientation would be very useful. For this reason a great deal of research into the relationship between moral foundation and political orientation has been done in recent years.
For this study political orientation is measured using a 7-point scale from liberal to
This study aims to answer the question of whether the correlation between moral foundations and political orientation seen in the American studies will be recreated in an Australian population. If so are the same moral foundations associated with the same political affiliation. Furthermore what affect does this association (If present) have on the voting preferences of a person, being that in Australia the Liberal political party holds a conservative political orientation, whilst other parties, such as the Australian labor party and the Greens party are considered more liberal.
It is hypothesised that the same political-moral pattern seen in the US will be scene in an Australian population. Being that those who score on the liberal end of the seven point scale will be shown by the MFQ to place more value the Harm / Care and Fairness / Reciprocity moral foundations then those of Ingroup / Loyalty, Authority / Respect and Purity / Sanctity. Furthermore those who score on the conservative end will show an even spread over the five moral foundations. Finally it has been hypothesised that in the Australian population the political orientation of conservatives will be more likely to vote for the Liberal party; however the difference between the liberal and labor party will be relatively small, and those who score strongly on the liberal side will be likely to vote for a separate non-main party such as the Greens party. Those who sit in the