Sexual attitudes and moral values: The importance of idealism and relativism

Abstract

The present study tested a model of individual differences in moral thought, which assumes that attitudes concerning prescribed and proscribed social actions are part of an integrated conceptual system of personal ethics. When individuals who have varying personal moral philosophies were compared, those who emphasize the validity of fundamental moral principles (nonrelativists) expressed relatively negative attitudes about proscribed forms of sexual behavior, whereas relativists’ reactions were more positive. The impact of relativism on attitudes, however, was tempered by idealism: when individuals endorsed highly idealistic ideologies, relativism was unrelated to attitudes. These findings suggest that variations in sexual attitudes are linked to individual differences in moral outlook. © 1989, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.