Idealism and Relativism Across Cultures

This article represents one of the first cross-cultural explorations of ethical ideology among physicians. The study involved a total of 1,109 physicians from six countries (Canada, China, India, Ireland, Japan, and Thailand) who responded to the Ethics Position Questionnaire. A comprehensive Bayesian Confirmatory Factor Analysis demonstrated robustness of the ethical dimensions of idealism and relativism as fundamental across cultures, with noteworthy cross-cultural variation. In particular, a four-factor construct was revealed and suggested more complex ethical dimensions for Chinese physicians.