Values Through the Lens of Culture: Responding to the Intergroup-level Authority Decisions

The present papers considers cultural differences in how moral values can shape responses to intergroup-level authority decisions – that is, decisions that allocate outcomes between different groups. We hypothesised that at the individual-level, values of fairness, loyalty and authority (three of the values described by moral foundations theory) may predict how people respond to authority decisions that either favour or disfavour their group, and but this relationship would be different in depending on culture. Individuals who care about the foundation of fairness, in particular, may use overall fairness of the decision to determine whether they accept or disagree with authority decisions. On the other hand, those who care about loyalty to own group would consider whether or not such decision is harmful to one’s group before accepting it. Finally, those hold a moral concern for authority may accept just any decision that authority makes because disagreeing with authority decisions would pose a threat to the social order. However, the meaning of these values may be distinct across cultures. The extent to which those values lead to the expected responses to authority decisions was investigated in two samples of students in a vertical collectivist context (Malaysia; n = 156) and an individualist context (Northern Ireland; n = 162). Participants read about two government decisions to distribute prestigious internships between their own and a local rival university in ways that either favoured or disfavoured their own university. We then examined the extent to which participants found decisions to be fairer and more acceptable if they advantaged the ingroup. We found that moral concern for authority - but not loyalty or fairness - predicted how students responded to authority decisions. However, the effects of concern for authority were different across the two cultures. For Malaysian students, higher moral concern for authority predicted less preference for the pro-ingroup authority decision, whereas for the Northern Irish sample, the reverse was true. This study is among the first to consider how culture can moderate the link between values and behaviour. Specifically, we demonstrate the understanding of values is culture-specific and can translate to the opposing behaviours, depending on the context.