Attitudes toward climate change and carbon footprints vary widely across the United States. A study from the University of Southern California suggests that moral values play a key role in shaping these regional differences.

The researchers applied Moral Foundations Theory, which holds that moral judgments stem from core intuitions about care, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity. They analyzed opinion surveys from 12,061 respondents (collected between 2008 and 2013) that measured beliefs about climate change—its reality, human causes, and negative effects. These responses were compared with household carbon footprint estimates from the UC Berkeley CoolClimate Network, along with 106,465 responses to the Moral Foundations Questionnaire, presidential election results, and other demographic data.

A moral choice

The analysis, conducted at the county level, found that moral values correlate with environmental attitudes. Counties that placed a high emphasis on fairness were 1.06 times more likely to support green policies, while those with higher education levels had 1.05 times greater odds. Counties that valued purity—a moral foundation often associated with conservative beliefs—were 1.02 times more likely to favor environmental action.

Political affiliation was the strongest predictor of climate attitudes, with fairness norms ranking second. However, purity values had the strongest link to household carbon footprints. The authors suggest that while purity is typically framed as a conservative value, in liberal regions it may manifest as a duty to keep the Earth untainted.