Sexual orientation and moral reasoning: an exploratory study

Recent evidence has found higher scores in three morally relevant traits such as psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism (dark triad traits) in non-heterosexual individuals. Yet, the current knowledge on how sexual orientation influences moral reasoning is limited. We investigated moral reasoning in a group of 31 non-heterosexual individuals (20 males, 3 asexual; mean age: 35.12, SD: 10.04) and 90 heterosexual individuals (16 males; mean age: 32.8, SD: 11.04) using the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ-30). Additionally, we included other variables such as interoceptive awareness (via MAIA-2), disgust sensitivity (via DS-R), empathy (QCAE), which are known to predict moral appraisal, and emotional processing (via TAS-20). Bonferroni corrected t-test documents significant results for an overall reduced score in non-heterosexual individuals (M = 87.29 +/- 13.96) compared to heterosexual individuals (M = 97.74 +/- 17.61), which is confirmed only for Authority-Respect and Purity-Sanctity subscales. Moreover, in line with the existing literature, we observed significant positive correlations between MFQ-30 and subscale scores of DS-R, QCAE and MAIA-2 for heterosexual individuals. Despite limitations posed by the relatively small sample size of the non-heterosexual group and gender imbalance in the heterosexual group, these findings offer preliminary support for the hypothesis that non-heterosexual orientation is associated with reduced concerns regarding the values included in the moral foundation questionnaire. Emotional and cultural factors may be relevant to explain this result.