Stanley J. Morse

Leadership, cross‐cultural contact, socio‐economic status, and formal operational reasoning about moral dilemmas among Mexican non‐literate adults and high school students

Kohlberg proposed that various cultural, social and educational factors may influence moral reasoning. As far as the authors know, participants in previous studies of moral reasoning have been, largely, educated persons, irrespective of their culture. Two studies on moral reasoning were conducted in a Mexican–United States border city. The first study found that even some unschooled, non‐literate adults reason at a high stage (formal operations, Moral 3/4). Exposure to different cultural and organizational contexts, in addition to assumption of leadership roles, was associated with such reasoning. Likewise, the second study found that high school students who were identified as leaders, especially those with cross‐cultural contact and those who were of high socio‐economic status, reasoned at higher stages than those who were not. Overall, stage of reasoning increased with age.