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It almost seems like it's out of vogue. Morality , that is.   We have a president who lies just about every time he opens his mouth, a congress that looks the other way, an attorney general who fidgets and flushes uncomfortably when asked to speak the truth (and doesn't). But how do we find out way back? Experts say it's how guilty we feel when we do something wrong, and then, what we do about it. I'm ashamed to admit that recently, with my new car and too-big side mirrors, I clipped someone else's mirror driving by.  I think most of the damage was done to my mirror -- I had to have it soldered back into place.  But I didn't leave a note for the other person, and to this day (about a week and a half later), I still feel guilty.  Unlike the teenager who backed into my two-month-old car at a high school event and did leave a sorrowful note under my windshield.  (I was parked in a fire lane so I covered the cost of my new driver's side door.) Accordin...

Want to influence someone's opinion? Just tell them it's moral . According to a new study, if you want to strengthen your opinion, the way to do it is to imply you are taking the moral path.  But, as Dr. Phil would say, do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy? Newswise.com reports that simply telling people that their opinions are based on morality will make them stronger and more resistant to counterarguments, the new study suggests. Researchers found that people were more likely to act on an opinion – what psychologists call an attitude – if it was labeled as moral and were more resistant to attempts to change their mind on that subject. The results show why appeals to morality by politicians and advocacy groups can be so effective, says Andrew Luttrell, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in psychology at The Ohio State University. “The perception that an attitude we hold is based on morality is enough to strengthen it,” Luttrell say...