Bedle, Heather2024-08-092024-08-092024-08Bedle, H., (2024). The Moral Foundations of Group Perceptions. 2023 SPEER Survey Findings.https://hdl.handle.net/11244/340573We investigate the role of moral foundations in shaping attitudes towards various social and political groups in the United States. Using data from the 2023 SPEER survey (N=2,188), we examine how the five moral foundations—Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, and Purity—relate to feelings towards left-sympathetic and right-sympathetic groups, while controlling for demographic factors. Our findings reveal that individualizing foundations (Care and Fairness) consistently predict warmer attitudes towards left-sympathetic groups and cooler attitudes towards right-sympathetic groups. Conversely, binding foundations (Loyalty and Authority) show strong associations with warmer attitudes towards right-sympathetic groups and cooler attitudes towards left-sympathetic groups. The Purity foundation demonstrates more complex relationships, defying simple left-right categorization. These results underscore the importance of considering psychological factors alongside demographics when studying group perceptions and affective polarization.Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 InternationalPsychology, Social.Political Science, General.Sociology, General.Technical Report