Moral Foundations Test
What drives your sense of right and wrong?
Free to take · see your scores free · no sign-up
About this test
Moral Foundations Theory, developed by Jonathan Haidt and colleagues, proposes that human morality rests on six innate foundations: Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, Sanctity, and Liberty. People weight these foundations very differently — and those differences explain why intelligent, well-meaning people land on opposite sides of nearly every cultural debate. These 48 statements measure how strongly each foundation drives your own moral judgments.
What you'll discover
Care
Sensitivity to suffering and harm. Drives compassion, protectiveness toward the vulnerable, and gentleness.
Fairness
Concern with justice, cheating, and proportionality. Drives outrage at double standards and free-riders.
Loyalty
Allegiance to family, team, and community. Drives solidarity, group pride, and contempt for betrayal.
Authority
Respect for legitimate hierarchy and tradition. Drives deference, duty, and the value placed on social order.
Sanctity
Sense of purity and the sacred. Drives reverence, self-discipline, and unease at degradation.
Liberty
Resistance to domination and coercion. Drives autonomy, suspicion of concentrated power, and live-and-let-live ethics.
Understanding the Moral Foundations Test
The Moral Foundations Test helps you see which moral values guide your judgment most strongly. Instead of asking whether you are “good” or “bad,” it looks at the patterns behind the choices you make when you think about fairness, harm, tradition, respect, group loyalty, purity, and personal freedom. Your score profile can show you which foundations feel especially important to you, and which ones you tend to place lower when you make decisions or react to public issues.
This can be useful because many disagreements are not just about facts — they come from people relying on different moral instincts. When you understand your own balance of Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, Sanctity, and Liberty, it becomes easier to notice why certain arguments feel convincing or upsetting to you. That insight can help you reflect on your values, communicate more clearly, and better understand why other thoughtful people may reach very different conclusions.
The test is free to take, and your scores are shown for free when you finish. If you want a deeper breakdown of what your pattern may mean, you can unlock the full written analysis for a small one-time fee or with eTestor Plus.
Where the Moral Foundations Test comes from
Jonathan Haidt, Jesse Graham and Brian Nosek set out Moral Foundations Theory in a 2009 paper, proposing that moral judgment draws on several distinct intuitions rather than one principle.
How the Moral Foundations Test is scored
Five foundation scores — care, fairness, loyalty, authority and purity — reported as relative weights. The theory's best-known finding is that political groups differ less in whether they have morals than in which foundations they weight, which is why opposing sides often feel they are arguing past each other.
Evidence
Based on a published, peer-reviewed model
More on how we build and score these tests: our methodology.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Moral Foundations Test free?
Yes. The test is free to take, and you can view your scores for free at the end. If you want the full written analysis, you can unlock it separately.
How long does the Moral Foundations Test take?
It usually takes just a few minutes to complete the 48 statements. Your exact time depends on how quickly you answer and think about each item.
Is this test accurate and science-based?
It is based on Moral Foundations Theory, a well-known psychological framework developed by Jonathan Haidt and colleagues. Like all self-report tests, it gives you a useful snapshot rather than a perfect or final answer about your values.
Do I need an account to take the Moral Foundations Test?
In most cases, you can start without creating an account. An account may be useful if you want to save access to your results or use paid unlocks later.
What do I get at the end of the Moral Foundations Test?
You get your scores across all six moral foundations right away, free. If you want the full written analysis — what each foundation means for you, where your instincts lean, and how your profile compares — that's an optional unlock ($1.99, or included with Unlimited).
No sign-up required.
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