Public opinion on morality policy: The moderating role of local context

People’s religiosity and political ideology are strong predictors of their opinions about morality policies. However, can the setting in which people live moderate the effects of these individual-level traits on their attitudes? Using a survey conducted in three municipalities in Israel, this study examines how the characteristics of local municipalities moderate the impact of people’s individual levels of religiosity and political ideology on their support for proposed LGBT rights policies. We find that the characteristics of the local municipality moderate the effect of people’s individual-level traits on their attitudes. Very religious individuals are more likely to support LGBT rights policies when their environment is relatively secular and predominantly left-wing politically. Non-religious individuals, on the other hand, are less likely to support LGBT rights policies when their environment is very religious and predominantly right-wing politically. The same holds true for individuals with left and right-wing political ideologies. These findings have significant implications for our knowledge about how public opinion forms. They imply that the setting can change the impact of individual-level characteristics. Thus, to understand morality-policy opinion formation, we must account for local context, which moderates the influence of personal characteristics.