Through using Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) and the Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) method, this study proposes a new approach to ethical consumer categorization. Based on a survey using national survey data of more than 1,000 people in the United States and Malaysia, this study found three common ethical consumer groups based on ethical sensitivity in both countries—moral enthusiast, moral interested, and moral indifferent. In addition to the aforementioned commonalities, we found national differences in consumer profiles: the U.S. sample also shows a moral progressivist group inclined to liberal ethics, while the Malaysia sample shows a moral intuitionist group with a relativistic approach in ethical decision making. The results indicate that ethical consumer profiling based on MFT has a sufficient level of criterion validity as it helps predict moral outrage, pro-business attitudes, and boycott intentions in response to corporate irresponsibility. The study also demonstrates cross-cultural differences in moral foundations and moral judgments in the context of ethical consumerism and corporate social irresponsibility.

中文翻译：

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美国和马来西亚道德消费者的潜在概况分析

通过使用道德基础理论 (MFT) 和潜在概况分析 (LPA) 方法，本研究提出了一种新的道德消费者分类方法。本研究基于对美国和马来西亚 1000 多人的全国性调查数据进行的一项调查，发现两国基于道德敏感性的三种常见道德消费群体——道德狂热、道德感兴趣和道德冷漠。除了上述共性外，我们还发现了消费者特征的国家差异：美国的样本也显示出一个倾向于自由伦理的道德进步主义群体，而马来西亚的样本则显示出在道德决策上采用相对主义方法的道德直觉主义群体。结果表明，基于 MFT 的道德消费者分析具有足够的标准效度，因为它有助于预测道德愤怒、亲商业态度和抵制企业不负责任的意图。该研究还展示了在道德消费主义和企业社会不负责任的背景下，道德基础和道德判断的跨文化差异。