morale mechanics

I've been playing for a couple of days, and it seems I have a good production model down (use econ bonuses to fuel industrial growth, more money=higher slider), but the bottleneck appears to be approval rate.

After a certain level, despite having set up appropriate an morale booster (network/multi/arena/etc) on each world, morale nevertheless constantly drops. My questions are this:

1. Are there other factors besides tax rate and improvements that can effect morale? Currently, I think it might have something to do with population, like the larger the pop you have, the more morale boosters you need. I tend to go heavy on the farms, as it means more tax revenue and UP votes.

2. Can low morale effect defection rate if I stay with Galactic Empire and maintain high influence? Then, it wouldn't matter that much to be unpopular.

I'm going to do a little experimenting, but being that this is brand spanking new game, it's a little frustrating to be groping in the dark as to what works.
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Reply #1 Top
population does affect morale.

I have really high taxes early on and sometimes I forget to lower taxes after I colonize a planet and that planet has 30% approval and threatens to rebel.

That, and if you get invaded infomration warfare will buy off a ton of your citizens.
Reply #2 Top
Hover on your approval rating on the planet screen. A tool tip comes up with the factors affecting it.