Moral support

This article is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (February 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Moral support is a way of giving support to a person or cause, or to one side in a conflict, without making any contribution beyond the emotional or psychological value of the encouragement by supporting them.

For example, in a war between two countries or alliances, a third nation may give moral support to one side, without actually participating in the conflict (for example, Paraguay in World War II).

Another common example can be found in sports. By coming out to watch one's friend's team play a match, one is likely not directly supporting their team in any significant way, but one's friend may still feel encouraged by the moral support of one's presence.

The line between moral support and other forms of help is often hard to draw. For example, some athletes report that they play better when the spectators encourage them—and in some cases referees' decisions may be influenced by a partisan crowd.

There is also moral support that one can offer someone who is experiencing a difficult situation. One may not be able to offer any concrete assistance except empathy.

There are several key terms relating to the premise of moral support. One is the term "moral", which is defined as partaking in actions considered ethical or proper, and being the distinction between "right" and "wrong" (APA Dictionary ^[1]). Humans are all "morally motivated" and guided by a moral code, which is defined as the ethical values or principles that people use to guide their behaviour (APA Dictionary^[2]). An individual's morals and moral code are influenced by culture (Haidt 2007 ^[3]). Morality itself is said to be universal among humans (Haidt 2007 ^[4]).

"Moral support" is a term commonly used in popular culture. There is no formal definition of the term "moral support" in the psychological literature, nor is there a formalised or operationalised way to measure it. Whilst there is not much in the literature explicitly examining the topic of moral support as a subject, a lot of the literature contains discussions of topics closely related to moral support. These topics, themes and definitions, although not named as such, would amount to a direct acknowledgment of the existence of moral support.