Personal morality seems to have been the deciding factor, in last year's cannabis referendum

New Zealanders narrowly voted against legalising recreational cannabis.

New research by Massey University has found people who supported medicinal cannabis or voted for the Green Party were more likely to support legalisation.

But researcher Chris Wilkins says the vote ultimately came down to whether people thought using cannabis was right or wrong.

He says a person's moral stance on cannabis made it easy to predict which way they would vote.