Evolution of Moral Norms

Abstract

Moral norms are the rules of morality, those that people actually follow, and those that we feel people ought to follow, even when they don't. Historically, the social sciences have been primarily concerned with describing the many forms that moral norms take in various cultures, with the emerging implication that moral norms are mere arbitrary products of culture. Philosophers, on the other hand, have been more concerned with trying to understand the nature and source of rules that all cultures ought to follow, with relatively little regard for what people actually do. The tension between the two approaches has to do with whether there are any standards higher than the whims of culture in determining right and wrong. Typically, the social sciences say "no", pointing at the diversity of moral beliefs. Most philosophers (along with people of moral conviction) feel that there must be some deeper source of morality than the trends and fads of culture. Unfortunately, the nature and source of such standards has remained something of a mystery. Recent work on the evolution of norms has changed this picture dramatically. Evolutionary explanation of the emergence of moral norms proceeds in stages, as the evolutionary process itself proceeds in stages, rather than arriving all-at-once at a finished product. First, one must give an account of how behavior in consonance with the norms can arise. This may be no small matter, since some norms prescribe behavior that appears, on the face of it, to reduce Darwinian fitness. The explanations may be different for different classes of norms. Then, once the evolution of the behavior has been explained, the question remains as to the evolution of its normative status. Part of what makes a kind of behavior a norm consists in society's reaction to those who do not follow the norm. Enforcement marks a norm. Violation of a norm elicits various kinds of enforcement behavior-disapproval, punishment, ostracism-often at some costs to the enforcers. The evolution of these higher-order patterns of behavior must also be explained. Finally, one might hope in the end to also have an account of the evolution of the language of moral judgment, together with an evolutionary account of its meaning. That is asking for quite a lot, but an evolutionary account of the emergence of moral protolanguage, or of moral signals, would be a beginning.

How chimpanzees cooperate in a competitive world

“…The fight was finally broken up with the alpha male charging through and hitting the freeloader on the head. Although intervening in a fight is qualitatively different from humans paying to punish freeloaders in economic experiments and was a relatively rare response in the present experiment, the pattern of favoring the victim of the theft is suggestive of group-enforced social norms against freeloading (14). Indeed, the dissimilar responses to displacements and freeloading may reflect different social norms regulating these two types of competition.…”

“…The use of enforcement mechanisms in response to competition suggests that competition is in violation of cooperative norms (14). In the laboratory, humans respond more cooperatively when punishment is allowed (15), and even the mere threat of punishment maintains high levels of cooperation (16).…”

Features of understanding and emotional attitude toward the moral and social norms of pupils with intellectual disabilities

“…It corresponds to a determined kind of social attitude, based on personal beliefs and public opinion (BRENNAN, 2013). Thus, moral social norms are that people must adhere to (HARMS, SKYRMS, 2008). The assimilation process of moral social norms, patterns, standards, and ways of behavior is moral development (MOLCHANOV, 2011).…”

“…It corresponds to a determined kind of social attitude, based on personal beliefs and public opinion (BRENNAN, 2013). Thus, moral social norms are that people must adhere to (HARMS, SKYRMS, 2008). The assimilation process of moral social norms, patterns, standards, and ways of behavior is moral development (MOLCHANOV, 2011).The presence of intellectual disabilities (intellectual insufficiency) and unfavorable social conditions significantly complicate the assimilation process of moral social norms and the system of moral values.…”

The evolution of moral rules in a model of indirect reciprocity with private assessment

“…Moral rules are pervasive in human societies. They can be observed in a range of examples from the behaviours of 8 month-old infants 1 to the moral norms of societies 2 . The pervasiveness of these rules could be explained by their capacity to create cooperation by indirect reciprocity 3 .…”