Many of us like to think that our moral values are stable. We imagine that each of us has a moral compass within us, the needle pointing us reliably north—to our sense of right and wrong.
But according to A new study published Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesOur deepest moral values are not some fixed point to which we are magnetically attracted. It fluctuates depending on spring, summer, autumn or winter.
We already know that seasonal changes affect our moods (I’m looking at you, seasonal affective disorder). And research also shows that they affect everything Our attention to our memoriesfrom Color choice Crime rate. But our morality?
“It was certainly surprising to me,” the lead author Ian Hohm University of British Columbia told me in an interview.
Hohm said he didn’t expect morality to change “because it’s not a behavior, and it’s not some kind of fleeting emotion. It’s a fundamental part of how people make decisions about good and bad and right and wrong.”
Yet when he and his co-authors analyzed survey responses from more than 230,000 Americans over a decade, they found that people held certain values more strongly in spring and fall than in summer and winter — purity, obedience and respect for authority. .
Psychologists call these “binding values” because they promote social cohesion. They are a double-edged sword, however: their upside is that they increase cooperation among members of an in-group, but they can also increase prejudice against out-groups. (The study’s authors also investigated care and fairness, sometimes referred to as “personal values,” but found no consistent seasonal pattern.)
The results raise some big questions. First, why are people more accepting of binding values in spring and fall? And second, given that the binding value is strong Associated with political conservatismHow do we run a society — what are the implications, including big court cases and elections?
The role of anxiety
There’s something else that peaks in the spring and fall: self-reported anxiety.
The study authors noticed this trend when they analyzed more than 90,000 questionnaire responses. They hypothesize that the heightened anxiety they found in the spring and fall drives people to place a higher premium on binding values and their expression, such as close social groups and long-standing traditions. These kinds of things make us feel safe and comfortable – just what you want when you’re feeling anxious.
The authors also analyzed survey data from Canada and Australia and found that there, too, people accept binding standards more strongly in the spring and fall. Approval of these values drops in the summer — and by looking at respondents’ ZIP codes, the authors found that the dip is extra sharp in areas where the weather changes dramatically from one season to the next. But, interestingly, the winter dip was not related to the weather.
“So the summer effect can be a kind of sunshine effect — you know, your anxiety goes down because you’ve got nice weather outside,” Hohm said. Whether it’s because of the daylight, more time in nature, more exercise, or more socializing, many of us notice an improved mood during the summer.
“But the effect of winter, we think, is about certain kinds of cultural practices, such as changes in people’s activities and motivations during the holiday season.” In other words, you may be less anxious in December because you’ve got the day off from work or school and you’re hanging out with family and friends.
Of course, this is not true for every single person. And those who see change do not experience drastic changes in their moral values each time the seasons change.
“The impact on people’s moral values at the individual level is minimal,” Hohm told me. “If you look at individuals, this effect probably isn’t going to explain much. But when it comes to the human population as a whole, when everyone supports these values a little more, it can have big consequences.”
Which brings us to…
What does this mean for society and politics?
The research argues that these findings could have wider societal implications.
We know that conservative More supportive of compulsory values than liberals. So, one possible indication is that if we hold elections when people are more supportive of mandated values, it might make fence voters slightly more inclined to choose a conservative candidate than at other times of the year. “The timing of political elections (whether they occur in the summer or fall, for example) is likely to have some subtle effects on election outcomes,” the study argues.
Research also shows that those who support binding standards more strongly more punitive towards norm violators. Thus, conceivably, there may be some seasonal variation in legal decision-making.
Finally, because embedded moral values emphasize group cohesion, there may also be seasonal variations in prejudice against people — such as immigrants, ethnic minorities, or LGBTQ people — who are viewed as outsiders. (The authors of the study have begun to look into this, and although their research is still ongoing, Hohm told me that prejudice “seems to increase at the same time of year when people are more supportive of mandated values.”)
The study has important limitations. For one, it doesn’t analyze a nationally representative sample of people, but rather a more self-selecting crew who chose to answer survey questions online. Also, this is not a longitudinal study — different people responded to the survey at different times. We want to get a complete picture by evaluating the standards approved by the same people in different seasons
Another wrinkle: the results are not generalizable to every country. Although the authors found a similar seasonal cycle in moral values in the US, Canada and Australia, they did not find it in the UK and do not know why.
Still, the study challenges the popular view that each individual’s values are stable.
“The idea that people’s moral values can change with the seasons is consistent with a growing body of research that highlights the extent to which moral values—which are generally considered static and immutable—can change based on subtle or seemingly mundane features of people’s environments,” said Daniel YudkinA social psychologist not involved in the new study.
Apologies for your moral compass, here’s the takeaway: There is no moral north pole. Your sense of right and wrong may not be a fixed point, but something that is subject to changing seasons – literally.
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