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analysis. It is therefore indirectly based on the extensive fieldwork undertaken for that project.
Further analyses (not shown here) also show that this question is more “central” than most in the
sense that it is highly correlated with nearly every opinion or attitude measure on both the NSYR
and using Hunter’s original data, even with items that are not strongly correlated with each other.
Although it is phrased as a simple question about moral judgment, it may be tapping (as it was
intended to do) into larger, culturally available worldviews.
This result does not lead us to the Parsonian “consensualism” or “idealism” that E&G
warn us about. These moral worldviews are not pieces of a unitary culture, but are often in
conflict with each other (see Baker 2005; Hunter 2000). Neither do they stand for free-floating
ideas, since these moral “schemas” are strongly connected to structural “resources” in society
(Sewell 1992). Other research using these data (in progress) demonstrates that different
responses to this item are linked to different religious and occupational parental backgrounds and
even to different favorite television shows and musical artists. While this evidence isn’t
conclusive, it does suggest that the response to this single survey question is more than
idiosyncratic opinion or personality; it may in fact tell us something at the individual level about
the larger moral-cultural themes identified in studies like Habits of the Heart.
In addition to their potential theoretical significance, these results also speak to the
substantive concerns expressed by the Bellah team (1985). Among other things, the authors
expressed concern that individualism would lead to lower levels of civic engagement.
Subsequent ethnographic research by Lichterman (1996) cast doubt on this concern, but the
analysis here suggests that Bellah may have been on to something after all. Among American
youth, at least, individualist worldviews (doing what “makes me happy” or “what will help me
get ahead”) are indeed associated with decreased connections to socially engaged peers
Convention