Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Stephen Rice

Abstract

Correlation between Moral Foundations and Students’ Attitudes Toward Concealed Carry Guns on College CampusesAbstract Attitudes towards concealed carry of guns (CCG) on campus are diverse across society and within college and university communities. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate possible predictors of college students’ attitudes toward CCG on college campuses. Using the moral foundations theory, it was hypothesized that students’ types of moral foundations, political affiliations, and demographics would predict four dimensions of attitudes toward CCG at their college campuses. The prediction model included gender, race, political affiliation (PA), as well as scores for harm (H), fairness (F), ingroup (I), authority (A), and purity (P) from the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) predicting separate scores for attitudes regarding concealed carry: safety if students carry (SS), safety if faculty/staff carry (FS), confidence in police for crime prevention (CP), and ability to protect self if carrying a gun (SP). The sample size included 145 college students from across the United States. Primary results of multiple linear regressions revealed that, in general, moral foundations did not significantly predict attitudes, with one exception: “authority” significantly predicted SP. Political affiliation was a significant predictor of SS, FS, and SP, with conservatives generally more favorable than liberals. Age and race were not significant predictors. This investigation of some predictors of students’ attitudes toward CCG on campus can help professionals promote positive social change in higher education by recognizing factors that may affect students’ preferences and sense of safety regarding concealed weapons on campus.

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