Morality & Fairness

Question 1

2 perspectives of morality

Answer 1

• Evolutionist approach:
• • Perspective that the development of a trait for all humans follows a progressing trajectory
• • Later stages are deemed more advanced and better
• • aligns with Kohlberg’s Stage Theory of Morality
• Relativist approach:
• • Perspective that the development of a trait depends on local demands - the outcome is a cultural solution to a cultural problem
• • No trajectory, hierarchy, or stages - all are solutions, none are advanced or better
• • Aligns with Richard Shweder’s “Big 3” codes of ethics

Question 2

Kohlberg’s Stage Theory of Morality

Answer 2

• Most influential model of moral reasoning
• Proposes universal progression through three levels: preconventional, conventional, and post-conventional
• Cannot reach the next level without passing the previous level

Question 3

Kohlberg’s Stage Theory of Morality: Preconventional Level

Answer 3

• Morality is a calculation of what provides the best overall return, taking into account one’s needs and chance of being punished (ex. Fear of punishment is primary motivator for moral reasoning)
• Centered around the person/people directly involved in the dilemma

Question 4

Kohlberg’s Stage Theory of Morality: Conventional Level

Answer 4

• Morality is following rules, maintaining and facilitating social order (ex. Desire to follow laws/social conventions is primary motivator for moral reasoning)
• Centered around broader society

Question 5

Kohlberg’s Stage Theory of Morality: Postconventional level

Answer 5

• Morality is considering abstract, universal ethical principles that emphasize individual rights (ex. Recognizing that laws/social rules may be against people’s greater needs)
• Centered around upholding ethical principles

Question 6

Kohlberg’s Stage Theory of Morality: Evidence of universality?

Answer 6

• In meta-analysis, all urban societies had at least one adult engaging in post-conventional level
• Some tribal and indigenous societies show no evidence of postconventional level of thinking
• This implies that urban societies are more morally advanced than tribal/indigenous societies
• • However, some cultural environments encourage different kinds of moral reasoning, and too much focus on Western norms of moral reasoning assumes that Western cultural environments are at the top of the hierarchy when they’re not necessarily better than others → prompted relativist approach

Question 7

Richard Shweder’s “Big 3” codes of ethics

Answer 7

• There are 3 primary moral codes that different cultural groups emphasize
• No one code is better than the others
• codes: ethic of autonomy, ethic of community, ethic of divinity

Question 8

Richard Shweder’s “Big 3” codes of ethics: Ethic of Autonomy

Answer 8

• Associated with concerns about issues of harm, rights, and justice
• Must protect freedoms of individuals as much as possible
• Concerns one might have:
• • Was someone harmed? Did someone suffer emotionally? Was someone denied their rights? Did someone act unfairly?
• Associated with individualism

Question 9

Richard Shweder’s “Big 3” codes of ethics: Ethic of Community

Answer 9

• Tied to individual’s interpersonal obligations
• Must protect social order by fulfilling one’s obligations to others
• Concerns that one might have:
• • Did someone show a lack of loyalty? Did someone’s actions affect your group? Did someone conform to traditions of society? Did someone show disrespect for elders?
• Associated with collectivism

Question 10

Richard Shweder’s “Big 3” codes of ethics: Ethic of Divinity

Answer 10

• Associated with concerns about sanctity and “natural order”
• Must preserve standards mandated by transcendent authority
• Concerns that one might have:
• • Did someone do something disgusting? Did someone act in a way that God would approve of? Did someone act in indecent ways?
• Associated with collectivism, especially if religion is an important part of the culture

Question 11

Richard Shweder’s “Big 3” codes of ethics: how do we study it?

Answer 11

• using scenarios –> how much money would you need to be convinced to…
• ex. Marry someone against the wishes of your family (community), stick a pin into the palm of a child you don’t know (autonomy), act like an animal in a play for 30 minutes including being naked (divinity), etc.

Question 12

Richard Shweder’s “Big 3” codes of ethics: expansion

Answer 12

• Was later expanded to include 5 moral foundations:
• • Ethic of autonomy expanded to include:
• – Avoiding harm
• – Protecting fairness
• • Ethic of community expanded to include:
• – Loyalty to ingroup
• – Respecting hierarchy
• • Ethic of divinity expanded to include:
• – Achieving purity

Question 13

Ways to define fairness

Answer 13

• fairness = who deserves a resource
• Principle of need: resources directed to those who need them the most
• Principle of equality: resources shared among all members of a group
• Principle of equity: resources distributed based on people’s individual contributions

Question 14

fairness in individualistic vs. collectivistic societies

Answer 14

• Individualistic societies:
• • More emphasis on work for rewards
• • One’s input proportional to one’s reward
• • Supposed to increase motivation to work → breeds competition
• • Based on principle of equity (if you put more in, you get more out)
• Collectivistic societies:
• • Everyone gets same raise, but reward those who have been with the workplace the longest
• • Weakens link between individual input and rewards → decreases motivation to work hard
• • Promotes harmonious relations by removing intragroup competition
• • Based on principle of equality

Question 15

fairness in economic games: dictator game

Answer 15

• proposer is given $100 and asked what’s a fair amount to share with another person
• Motivations for fairness found to be higher in WEIRD societies than other societies

Question 16

fairness in economic games: ultimatum game

Answer 16

proposer given $100 and asked what’s a fair amount to share; but there’s also a receiver who will either reject or accept that offer (if accept, everyone gets the money offered, but if they reject, nobody gets money)

Question 17

economic theory behind dictator and ultimatum game - and is it true?

Answer 17

• Homo economicus: offer low, accept low
• • However, people tend to offer about 50% of their resources, and people are likely to reject offers that are 30% or less
• • Why don’t we offer low? Typical evolved explanations for prosocial behaviour:
• – Kinship: want to help people in our kin groups
• – Reciprocity: if we help them, they may help us later
• • Humans sensitive to fairness even in large, unrelated groups

Question 18

cross-cultural variation in economic decision-making

Answer 18

When looking at evidence from 23 small-scale human societies, including foragers, horticulturalists, and subsistence farmers, fairness norms vary widely across cultural groups

Question 19

cross-cultural variation in economic decision-making: what influences it?

Answer 19

• Markets:
• • Market integration (measured as percentage of purchased calories) –> More market integration = more 50/50 fairness norms
• • Trust, fairness, cooperation with anonymous groups = lower transaction costs, increased long-term rewards
• Participation in organized religion (more religious = more fair)

Question 20

public goods game: basics

Answer 20

• Everyone puts in as much as they want into the pot in the middle
• At end of every turn, the pot is multiplied
• • Strategies: everyone throws everything in (best for group success), you don’t contribute at all and instead profit from everyone else’s contributions (best for individual success)
• At end of turn, people can see who contributed what and have opportunity to punish the freeloaders

Question 21

public goods game: results

Answer 21

• All cultural groups sampled showed altruistic punishment (punish those who don’t contribute enough) → likely triggered by negative emotions from the violation of fairness norms
• Some countries show antisocial punishment (punish people who cooperate too much) → negatively predicted by the rule of law and civic cooperation

Question 22

What does it take for something to be a moral foundation?

Answer 22

• Culturally widespread: you should be able to document it in many cultures
• Provides an adaptive advantage: confers survival advantage
• Evidence of innate preparedness: emerge at a relatively young age
• Automatic affective evaluations: quick emotional reactions
• Common concern in third-party judgments: you’re concerned even if not directly affected

Question 23

Evolutionary basis of Shweder’s 5 moral foundations: avoiding harm

Answer 23

• Evolved because maternal brains are sensitive to offspring suffering
• Has since generalized beyond mother-child relationship

Question 24

Evolutionary basis of Shweder’s 5 moral foundations: fairness

Answer 24

• Evolved because of alliance formation of cooperation

- Led to emotions that helped motivate cooperation and prevent cheating, promoting group survival

Question 25

Evolutionary basis of Shweder’s 5 moral foundations: loyalty

Answer 25

• Evolved due to living in kin-based groups

- Led to trusting ingroup and distrusting outgroup

Question 26

Evolutionary basis of Shweder’s 5 moral foundations: authority

Answer 26

• Evolved due to hierarchically-structured ingroups

- Shaped brains to navigate hierarchies in order to increase survival

Question 27

Evolutionary basis of Shweder’s 5 moral foundations: purity

Answer 27

• Evolved due to emotions of disgust

- Developed to guard against disease transmission and pathogens

Question 28

moral foundations theory

Answer 28

• Many of the same arguments around issues (ie. gun control, climate change) can be thought of in terms of different moral values
• What moral foundations do liberal vs. conservatives feel most strongly about?
• • Americans who identify as strongly liberal tend to feel strongly about harm and fairness values (less focused on loyalty, authority, and purity)
• • Americans who identify as strongly conservative tend to have fairly strong intuitions for all five