Moral Foundations and Intention to Vote on Presidential Elections in Russia

Objectives. The aim was to study the relationship between moral foundations and intention of voting on the presidential elections in Russia. Background. Voting in political elections is important for consensus of society but a large proportion of voters don’t vote that may depend on psychological characteristics among other factors. There is a growing interest in the world in the moral factors of political preferences and voter turnout due to the elaboration of moral foundations theory. However, the relation between moral sphere and intention to vote as well as possible mediators of this relation remains understudied. Study design. The correlational design with subsequent structural equation modeling was used. The survey was conducted in 2018, 2—6 weeks before the Russian presidential elections. Participants. 126 university students at the age from 18 to 50 years old (80% are women). Measurements. To test these hypotheses we used the Moral foundations questionnaire (by J. Graham et al.), the questionnaire of political engagement elaborated for this research and the questionnaire about intention to vote and some socio-demographic variables. Results. The structural equation modeling showed that binding moral foundations were associated with interest to politics which in turn predicted the intention to vote. We also confirmed the known from the previous researches trend to less intention of voting in youth. Using path analysis we found out that less intention of voting in younger voters was due to their less loyalty and weak interest to politics. Conclusions. The intention of voting on the presidential elections depends on the political engagement related with the binding moral foundations.