Morality for the Sake of Relationships: Relationship-Specific Attachment Dimensions Predict Moral Foundations

Morality is deeply rooted in the context of relationships. Yet the influence of relational factors, such as attachment, on moral concerns remains largely unexplored. Nonetheless, recent scholarship has shed some light on the connection between attachment and moral considerations. To extend this understanding, the current study seeks to investigate whether relationship-specific attachment dimensions, specifically anxiety and avoidance, predict Haidt’s moral foundations—care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, and purity/degradation. After receiving ethics approval, a convenience sample of 468 individuals was recruited via the research team's social media networks. Participants completed an online survey, comprising questionnaires covering demographics, morality, personality, and attachment. Following data cleaning, 254 participants (61% female, 38% male) ranging from 18 to 74 years of age (Mean = 33.9, SD = 13.9), were included in the final analysis. First, correlational analysis was conducted, followed by several hierarchical multiple regression analyses, yielding significant results. Specifically, higher attachment anxiety with mother predicted greater moral concerns about authority, while higher attachment anxiety with father predicted greater concerns about harm and lower concerns about fairness. In contrast, higher attachment avoidance with mother predicted lower concerns about authority, whereas higher attachment avoidance with father predicted greater concerns about fairness. Friendship and romantic attachment dimensions did not predict moral foundations. Overall, our findings suggest that parental attachment may influence moral considerations, hinting at the potential origins of moral diversity in early attachment relationships.