Personality and Morality: Role of the Big Five Personality Traits in Predicting the Four Components of Moral Decision Making

The aim of the present study was to investigate the predicting role of the big five personality traits in the four components of moral decision-making. 

The population of this descriptive-correlation study included all the students in the University of Mazandaran. The participants were 384 students selected by stratified random sampling. In order to collect data, the Mini-IPIP, Ethical Sensitivity Scale, DIT-2, Moral Identity Questionnaire and the Moral Courage Scale were used. The data were analyzed by SPSS-24.

According to the results of this study, neuroticism was a negative significant predictor of moral identity and moral courage, extraversion was a negative significant predictor of moral identity, openness was a positive significant predictor of moral identity, agreeableness was a positive significant predictor of moral sensitivity and moral identity and conscientiousness were a positive significant predictor of moral identity, and moral courage.

According to the results of the present study, it can be stated that different personality traits can predict different aspects of moral decision making.