Moral culture and social tension

The article analyzes the influence of the moral culture of the Russian population on social tension. Moral culture is considered as a system of interpersonal attitudes that characterize the ability of members of a social community to maintain relationships of mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual assistance. The empirical basis of the study is the data of the All-Russian surveys conducted by the Institute for Comparative Social Research (CESSI) within the framework of the Russian Social Research under the European Social Research Program in 2006 and 2018. As indicators of moral culture are used variables that reflect the cautious or trusting attitude of respondents to most people; an assessment of the self-serving or honest attitude of most people to respondents; an assessment by respondents of the ratio of people focused on caring only for themselves or helping others. Variables that reflect negative assessments by respondents of the state of economic, social, political etc., as well as negative assessments of the impact of immigrants on the different spheres of life in countries are considered as indicators of social tension. Based on the use of statistical methods of data analysis, it was found that negative assessments of the state of spheres of life and the influence of immigrants on these spheres are less characteristic of respondents who trust the majority of people, are confident in the honesty of most people and their desire to help each other. A comparative analysis of changes in indicators of moral culture and social tension in the period from 2006 to 2018 in the country as a whole and in individual federal districts of the country shows that an increase of the value of moral culture indicators is accompanied by a decrease in the value of the social tension considered indicators.