Researchers say: Perception of moral decay is illusion

COLUMBIA, South Carolina – A group of researchers has rejected the notion that morality in society has declined over the past seven decades.

They said the evaluation of morality has remained largely unchanged over the past 70 years.

Adam Mastroianni, a psychologist at Columbia College, and his collaborator Daniel Gilbert have concluded that the perception of a moral decline is an illusion.

The study, published in the leading scientific journal Nature, says that people’s assessment of the morality of their contemporaries has not changed over time.

The researchers explained that this means that the perception of moral decline is false.

They stated that if morality had actually declined over time, people would be expected to rate their peers more negatively than had those who took the same survey earlier. 

But the data revealed that participants’ assessments of their contemporaries’ morality have not changed over time.

Another scientist, Liane Young, director of the Morality Lab at Boston College in Massachusetts, said pessimism about human nature is quite common.

The authors explained that the tendency to assume decline is related to factors such as distorted memory.

Mastroianni suggests that the illusion of moral decline could have important social and even political consequences. Because in 2015 a survey found 76% of people asking the government to address moral breakdown of the country. A view that could affect voting choices. 

The researcher admitted that it was a challenge to make people accept that the views the hold about moral decline was a illusion.