In a test of ideology and morality, Peter Hatemi, Charles Crabtree, and Kevin Smith found it was the other way around. Our political affiliation predicts our moral beliefs. Politics shape “how individuals rationalize what is right and what is wrong.” Your tribe does more to determine your morality than your morality does to determine your tribe. The researchers summarized their findings: “We will switch our moral compass depending on how it fits with what we believe politically.”
