There is an objective measure, but it’s content free. In the 1960′s psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg noticed any moral opinion, irrespective of the direction it went (for or against something), always fits into one of six different patterns, one more cognitively complex than the other, all of them organized into a hierarchical sequence individuals pass through in order as their cognitive abilities develop, which he called stages of moral development. This theory of his was then determined to be psychometrically sound, and to provide reproducible results.
Field studies all over the world since then have shown the six stages in an adult population follow a Normal distribution, with some limited variance due to culture and ethnicity, but not much. In other words, when an individual reaches full maturity, by their mid-30′s or so, they’ve usually arrived at the maximum stage they’ll be stuck with for life, which suggests there are genetic and/or environmental causes for this cognitive limitation.
Hence, while what someone will consider “right” or “wrong” isn’t determined by the stage they’re in (those are influenced by group affiliation, culture, personal history, formal education, and many other factors), how they go about reasoning about moral decisions does indeed follow objectively measureable patterns.
There is an objective measure, but it’s content free. In the 1960′s psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg noticed any moral opinion, irrespective of the direction it went (for or against something), always fits into one of six different patterns, one more cognitively complex than the other, all of them organized into a hierarchical sequence individuals pass through in order as their cognitive abilities develop, which he called stages of moral development. This theory of his was then determined to be psychometrically sound, and to provide reproducible results.
Field studies all over the world since then have shown the six stages in an adult population follow a Normal distribution, with some limited variance due to culture and ethnicity, but not much. In other words, when an individual reaches full maturity, by their mid-30′s or so, they’ve usually arrived at the maximum stage they’ll be stuck with for life, which suggests there are genetic and/or environmental causes for this cognitive limitation.
Hence, while what someone will consider “right” or “wrong” isn’t determined by the stage they’re in (those are influenced by group affiliation, culture, personal history, formal education, and many other factors), how they go about reasoning about moral decisions does indeed follow objectively measureable patterns.