Over the recent 25 years the sense of moral responsibility of Russians over the actions of relatives and colleagues has substantially weakened; at the same time, they started to feel more responsibility for the actions of the ancestors.

MOSCOW, December 2, 2014. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the information concerning the attitudes of Russians toward moral responsibility.

Today less Russians would take responsibility for the actions of other people than it was twenty five years ago. Most of them would take responsibility for the actions of their relatives (moral responsibility index is equal to 55 points (81 points in 1989). Three-quarter of respondents (73%) are confident that a human is responsible for the actions of the relatives (34% - fully responsible, 39% - partially responsible).

Being part of a work team is now less important for Russians than it was during the soviet times (index has decreased 2.5-fold compared to 1989 (43 and 112 points, respectively). Whereas earlier only 7% of respondents believed that people were not responsible for the work of their colleagues, today this share makes up 26%. Index of responsibility for what happens in the country has also decreased (from 20 to 4 points).  Identity with certain ethnic group is currently less important (the index of responsibility for the actions of people of the same ethnicity crossed the zero margin and makes up -15 points compared to 6 points in 1989).

Today more Russians feel responsible for the actions of their government than it was 25 years ago (the index grew up from -37 to 21 points). Over a quarter of a century more Russians have felt responsible for the actions of the ancestors, however, the index still remains negative (from -117 to 43 points). Whereas in 1989 the share of Russians who could take responsibility for the actions of the ancestors was 20%, today this share makes up 42%.

Most of respondents have happened to act unfairly in their lives but only few people take responsibility for these actions; 13% admit to have been wrong due to weakness (12% in 1989). More than one-quarter of respondents (28%) said that they had to do that “for the common good” (22% in 1989).

Under the pressure of the superior 14% of Russians happened to act against their will; 7% failed to resist the pressure put by the colleagues. Fourteen percent of Russians report to have acted against their will; their proportion has increased threefold (from 5%). The number of those who do so because of personal fears for relatives has also increased (from 4% to 11%). They are opposed by 29% of Russians who say that they never did anything that contradicted their principles (20% in 1989).  

*Moral responsibility index shows to what extent Russians feel the moral responsibility for the actions of other people. The index is based on the question “In your opinion, is a human morally responsible for the actions of other people?”  If the answer is “definitely yes”, the coefficient is 2; “somewhat yes” 1, “don`t know” -1 ; “definitely no”  -2. The index is measured in percentage points and can vary from -200 to 200. The higher the value of index is, the more moral responsibility Russians feel.

The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted on November 22-23, 2014. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 132 communities in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%. 

** All-Union representative sample, 1989; 2753 respondents aged 16 and over 

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