OBJECTIVE: Altruism is arguably the quintessential moral trait, involving willingness to benefit others and unwillingness to harm them. In this study, I explored how altruism and other personality variables relate to acceptance of euthanasia. In addition, I investigated the role of culture in attitudes to subcategorical distinctions of euthanasia. METHODS: 190 Iranian students completed the Attitude Towards Euthanasia scale, the HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised, and an interest in religion measure. RESULTS: Higher scores on altruism, Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and religiousness were associated with viewing euthanasia as unacceptable. As expected, altruism explained unique variance in euthanasia attitude beyond gender, religiosity and broad personality factors. CONCLUSIONS: Cultural and individual differences should be taken into consideration in moral psychology research and end-of-life decision-making.
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Naser Aghababaei (2013) studied this question.
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