Morality is Not Declining

How many times a week (or a month or a year) do you hear or read that morals are declining in our society. I'm guessing it was repeated just as frequently by our grandparents and their grandparents. If linage goes back to other countries it was probably there as well. 

Once in a while, an ambitious professor or graduate student in the social sciences or humanities looks into this. Looking into commonly held beliefs like "morals are declining" is a place these disciplines make their biggest contributions to the well-being of humans. No society improves by believing things that are not true. The humanities and social sciences destroy myths. Those who benefits from myths get profoundly angry at professionals in these disciplines. 

A recent study found that morals are NOT declining. This conclusion was reached even though polls show quite consistently that when people are asked a question like, "Do you believe morals are declining?" about 70% to 80% of the public answers yes. This goes on decade after decade.

The first problem with simple question about moral decline is leading the respondent. Sometimes the question is asked in ways such as, "There is so much sin, do you believe morals are declining?" Even without leading the respondent, the term "morals" is never defined.

People who believe "morals are declining" were then asked how often they had been lied to, stolen from, robbed, attacked or seen firsthand other acts that might reflect declining moral standards. Almost universally, they had not experienced these. When asked if they had observed good moral behavior or selflessness recently usually people agree they have seen this. When actual statistics about crime and such normally considered moral behavior evidence is "morals" are improving. Thus, in spite of the almost universal belief morals are declining it is so far impossible to find evidence this is true.

The link discusses the question of why people think morals are declining when they are not. It is not possible to know the insides of millions of people's minds. One notion is that it may be self serving. That is, it may help me think better of myself and of my local circle of family and friends if I see other groups as lower in moral values. And we are all subject to believing things we have heard over and over again but never looked into their accuracy.

In summary, declining in morality in the U.S. is a myth.