Moral support

For example, in a war between two countries or alliances, a third nation may give moral support to one side, without actually participating in the conflict (for example, Paraguay in World War II).

Another common example can be found in sports. By coming out to watch one's friend's team play a match, one is likely not directly supporting their team in any significant way, but one's friend may still feel encouraged by the moral support of one's presence.

The line between moral support and other forms of help is often hard to draw. For example, some athletes report that they play better when the spectators encourage them—and in some cases referees' decisions may be influenced by a partisan crowd.

There is also moral support that one can offer someone who is experiencing a difficult situation. One may not be able to offer any concrete assistance except empathy.

There are several key terms relating to the premise of moral support. One is the term "moral", which is defined as partaking in actions considered ethical or proper, and being the distinction between "right" and "wrong" (APA Dictionary ). Humans are all "morally motivated" and guided by a moral code, which is defined as the ethical values or principles that people use to guide their behaviour (APA Dictionary). An individual's morals and moral code are influenced by culture (Haidt 2007 ). Morality itself is said to be universal among humans (Haidt 2007 ).

"Moral support" is a term commonly used in popular culture. There is no formal definition of the term "moral support" in the psychological literature, nor is there a formalised or operationalised way to measure it. Whilst there is not much in the literature explicitly examining the topic of moral support as a subject, a lot of the literature contains discussions of topics closely related to moral support. These topics, themes and definitions, although not named as such, would amount to a direct acknowledgment of the existence of moral support.

Theoretical basis

The morals a person has as an adult come as a direct product of their moral development. Literature surrounding this field of study occasionally refers to moral support in the context of parents aiding their children in making moral decisions (Turiel 1983). From an early age, humans are able to intuitively identify a morally charged situation from a more mundane one, as explained by Social Domain Theory (Turiel 1983 ). These ‘unique’ moral situations may require a different kind of approach or even assistance in order to be dealt with; this is when moral support can be required.

Humans are highly social. Our cultures demand conformity (Asch 1951) to certain societal norms, such as conforming to moral codes and pressures. When deciding between the "wrong" or "right" decisions, a person may need emotional support, or approval from another peer in the form of moral support.

Moral support can come in the form of influence by norms and role models (Aquino and Freeman ). A person's surrounding environment can influence the extent to which the decisions they make are "moral". This depends on the person's moral identity, and whether or not they consider being a moral person as an important part of their identity. In an environment where the expression of moral identities, constructs and concerns is common and overt, people that value morals highly within their identity experience reinforcement of their own moral identity. Individuals that would ordinarily assign low importance to their morals, may experience a "temporary moral identity" which will influence the way in which they make a moral decision. Those with high importance moral identities gained moral support from this environment, which is why they experience this reinforcement of identity. Those with low importance moral identities experience this temporary moral identity, because their environment provides them with moral support and insight when making a morally charged decision, leading to more moral behaviour.

Furthermore, the Social Information Processing (Crick and Dodge, 1994 ) in conjunction with Moral Decision-Making Framework (Garrigan, Adlam, Langdon 2018 ) shows how in a morally charged situation, a proximal decision is made by following a set of internalised cues, before a behaviour in enacted. The framework shows how these internal cues take into consideration social factors, most notably peer interaction, parenting and culture. This supports the idea that we look, even if subconsciously, to others for moral support when making moral decisions.

See also Moral Psychology and Moral Behaviour