Member-only story
How we all believe morals have declined since our birth — irrespective of how old we are or year of birth!
So our country (or countries) are not going to the dogs?!
Well, maybe your country is going to the dogs, depending on where you are! But that is a different question because there are multiple factors involved in that such as trade and international competition.
This group of researchers from clearer thinking wanted to find out and replicate findings in perceived moral degradation — perceptions only.
First of all: is this an illusion then?
Well, that was what the original paper by Mastroianni & Gilbert showed in 2023.
In what way?
They questioned 387 people of different ages and backgrounds on perceived moral attitudes in society. The questions were formulated as thus:
In this study, we’ll ask you how kind, honest, nice, and good people were at various points in time. If you’re not sure or you weren’t alive at that time, that’s okay, just give your best guess.”
They then rated this question of how kind, honest, nice, and good people were (this is the moral status) at different time points:
