How much would someone have to pay you for you to be willing to slap your father in the face (with his permission) as part of a comedy skit? $ ___
People tend to give high numbers for this question (or aren’t willing to accept any amount), much moreso than if they are asked about their willingness to slap a friend. It is a violation that crosses some important boundary which one might label “sacred”.
But in moral foundations theory, it is not a violation of the purity/sanctity foundation. It’s a violation of the authority foundation.
Conclusion: “sacredness” (in this sense of a special-feeling boundary which people feel a strong aversion to crossing) is not limited to the purity foundation. It can apply to other foundations as well.
Graham and Haidt say that the examples from all five foundations are violations of sacred values (even the ones that do not involve purity/degradation). They define “sacredness” separately from the purity foundation:
Sacredness refers to the human tendency to invest people, places, times, and ideas with importance far beyond the utility they possess. Tradeoffs or compromises involving what is sacralized are resisted or refused. In prototypical cases these investments tie individuals to larger groups with shared identities and ennobling projects, and so tradeoffs or compromises are felt to be acts of betrayal, even in non-prototypical cases in which no group is implicated.
It’s worth checking out the table at the end of the Graham & Haidt paper where they put together the pieces for a moral narrative based on each of the five foundations, including what people, things, and ideas that have become “sacred objects” and what evil they need to be protected from. For the Harm foundation, sacred values are “nurturance, care, peace”, sacred objects are “innocent victims, nonviolent leaders (Gandhi, M. L. King)”, evil is represented by “cruel and violent people”, and examples of idealistic violence are “killing of abortion doctors, Weather Underground bombings”. (Killing abortion doctors is also classified under Purity.)
How much would someone have to pay you for you to be willing to slap your father in the face (with his permission) as part of a comedy skit? $ ___
People tend to give high numbers for this question (or aren’t willing to accept any amount), much moreso than if they are asked about their willingness to slap a friend. It is a violation that crosses some important boundary which one might label “sacred”.
But in moral foundations theory, it is not a violation of the purity/sanctity foundation. It’s a violation of the authority foundation.
Conclusion: “sacredness” (in this sense of a special-feeling boundary which people feel a strong aversion to crossing) is not limited to the purity foundation. It can apply to other foundations as well.
There are many more examples of taboo actions, for all five foundations, here. This collection is from a paper by Graham & Haidt (2011), Sacred values and evil adversaries: A Moral Foundations approach; many of the examples were developed in Haidt’s earlier research.
Graham and Haidt say that the examples from all five foundations are violations of sacred values (even the ones that do not involve purity/degradation). They define “sacredness” separately from the purity foundation:
It’s worth checking out the table at the end of the Graham & Haidt paper where they put together the pieces for a moral narrative based on each of the five foundations, including what people, things, and ideas that have become “sacred objects” and what evil they need to be protected from. For the Harm foundation, sacred values are “nurturance, care, peace”, sacred objects are “innocent victims, nonviolent leaders (Gandhi, M. L. King)”, evil is represented by “cruel and violent people”, and examples of idealistic violence are “killing of abortion doctors, Weather Underground bombings”. (Killing abortion doctors is also classified under Purity.)