STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
All right, let's talk for a moment about values. Most people would value fairness or loyalty or respect for authority. Many of us see these values as core to our identity.
IAN HOHM: People's moral values are things that people tend to think don't change.
INSKEEP: Ian Hohm is a Ph.D. student at the University of British Columbia, and he's been looking at whether moral values can change with the seasons. Where did he even get this idea? Well, Hohm and his team looked at five moral values. One was fairness, our desire for equity, equality - another was care, our desire to be kind and prevent harm to others. Those two do not change with the seasons.
HOHM: But what we did find varied with the seasons were these other three values. Those are loyalty, respect for authority and purity, which is sort of the valuation of your in-group's traditions.
INSKEEP: Wow, turns out we're more loyal in the spring and the fall than other times. Hohm says they're called binding values, and people tend to embrace them when they feel threatened or anxious.
HOHM: And we found that people tend to be most anxious in spring and autumn also and less anxious in mid-summer and mid-winter. And we think that that pattern helps account for the pattern we see in binding value endorsement.
INSKEEP: Now, it's not that our morals swing wildly, totally change from one season to the next.
HOHM: People shouldn't think that people are total rule-followers in spring and complete maverick non-conformists in summer. The effect on moral values is consistent, but it's also relatively small.
INSKEEP: Unless you're on the receiving end of the change.
HOHM: People who endorse binding values tend to be more punitive towards people who commit crimes. And if you think about the millions of court cases that happen every year, this change could potentially push some judges and some juries in really close call verdicts toward harsher punishments in spring and more lenient sentences in summer or during the winter holidays.
INSKEEP: Wow, so those small pushes could really add up. If you're going to be on trial, make sure it's in the winter, I guess.
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