Chapt 7. The Moral Foundations of Politics
Homo economicus versus Homo Sapiens
“Behind every act of altruism, heroism and human decency
you’ll find either selfishness or stupidity. That at least is the view
long held by man social scientists who accepted the idea that
Homo sapiens is really Homo economicus”.
Chapt 7. The Moral Foundations of Politics
Homo economicus versus Homo Sapiens
Harm/Care
Fairness
Loyalty
Authority
Sanctity
Chapt 7. The Moral Foundations of Politics
Sidebar on Innateness
“It used to be risky for a scientist to assert than anything about
human behavior was innate. To back up such claims, you had to
show the trait was hardwired, unchangeable by experience, and
found in all cultures. With that definition, not much is innate, aside
for a few infant reflexes ... If you proposed that anything more
complex than that was innate – particularly a sex difference – you’d
be told that there was a tribe somewhere on Earth that didn’t show
the trait, so therefore it’s not innate … We’ve advanced a lot since
the 1970s in our understanding of the brain, and now we know that
that traits can be innate without being hardwired or universal. As
the neuroscientist Gary Marcus explains,
Nature bestows upon the newborn a considerably complex brain,
but one that is best seen as prewired – flexible and subject to
change – rather than hardwired, fixed and immutable.
Chapt 7. The Moral Foundations of Politics
Sidebar on Innateness
“To replace wiring diagrams, Marcus suggests a better analogy:
The brain is like a book, the first draft of which is written by the
genes during fetal development. No chapters are complete at
birth, and some are just rough outlines waiting to be filled in
during childhood. But not a single chapter – be it on sexuality,
language, food preferences, or morality – consists of blank pages
on which society can inscribe any conceivable set of words.
Marcus’s analogy leads to the best definition of innateness I have
ever seen:
Nature provides a first draft, which experience then revises….
‘Built-in’ does not mean unmalleable; it means organized in
advance of experience.
The Moral Foundations
1: The Care/Harm Foundation
Cuteness primes us to care, nurture, protect, and interact. It gets the
elephant leaning … the Care foundation can be triggered by any child.
A current trigger for the Care/Harm foundation
Lorenz on the
“Cute Response”
Baby schema modulates the brain reward system
in nulliparous women
Glocker et al PNAS 2009
Ethologist Konrad Lorenz
defined the baby schema as a
set of infantile physical
features, such as round face,
high forehead and big eyes,
that is perceived as cute and
motivates caretaking behavior
in animals including humans,
with the evolutionary function
of enhancing offspring
survival.
Glocker et al carried out an
fmri study to test this
hypothesis.
Baby schema modulates the brain reward system
in nulliparous women
Glocker et al PNAS 2009
Baby schema modulates the brain reward system
in nulliparous women
Glocker et al PNAS 2009
“Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and controlled manipulation
of the baby schema in infant faces, we found that the baby schema activates
the nucleus accumbens, a key structure of the mesocorticolimbic system
mediating reward processing and appetitive motivation, in nulliparous
women. Our findings suggest that engagement of the mesocorticolimbic
system is the neurophysiologic mechanism by which baby schema promotes
human caregiving, regardless of kinship.”
Baby schema modulates the brain reward system
in nulliparous women
Glocker et al PNAS 2009
The Five Moral Foundations (Haidt)
1. Care/harm: Related to our long evolution as mammals with
attachment systems and an ability to feel (and dislike) the pain of
others. Underlies compassion, empathy, kindness, nurturance.
2. Fairness/cheating: Related to the evolutionary process of
reciprocal altruism. Generates ideas of justice, rights, and autonomy.
3. Loyalty/betrayal: Related to our long history as tribal creatures
able to form shifting coalitions. Underlies virtues of patriotism and
self-sacrifice for the group. “One for all, and all for one!"
4. Authority/subversion: Shaped by our long primate history of
hierarchical social interactions. Underlies virtues of leadership and
followership, including deference to legitimate authority, respect for
traditions and the fulfillment of role-based duties.
5. Sanctity/degradation: Shaped by the psychology of disgust and
contamination. Underlies religious notions of striving to live in an
elevated, less carnal, more noble way, idea that the body is a temple
which can be desecrated by immoral activities and contaminants.
The Moral Foundations
1: The Care/Harm Foundation
Liberal and conservative caring
The Moral Foundations
2. Fairness/Cheating
Fairness Left and Right
The Moral Foundations
3. Loyalty/Betrayal
A car decorated with emblems of loyalty, and
a sign modified to reject one kind of loyalty
The Moral Foundations
4. Authority/Subversion
Two rather different valuations of the
Authority/subversion foundation
The Moral Foundations
5. Sanctity/Degradation
Two different views of the
Sanctity/degradation foundation
Violations of the Sanctity Foundation
“Life of Brian”
“Look on the Bright Side of Life”
Violations of the Sanctity
& Authority Foundations
From Birtherreport.com
From Freedomoutpost.com
Care/ harm
Fairness/
cheating
Loyalty/
betrayal
Authority/
subversion
Sanctity/
degradation
Protect and care
for young,
vulnerable or
injured kin
Suffering,
distress, or
neediness
expressed by
one’s kin
Reap benefits
of two-way
partnerships
with non-kin
Reap benefits
of cohesive
coalitions
Forge beneficial
relationships
Avoid microbes
within
and parasites
hierarchies
Cheating,
cooperation,
deception
Threat or
challenge to
group
Signs of
Waste products,
dominance and
diseased people
submission
New
triggers
Baby seals,
cute cartoon
characters
Marital fidelity,
Sports teams,
broken vending
nations
machines
Characteristic
emotions
Compassion,
empathy
Anger,
gratitude, guilt
Adaptive
challenge
Original
triggers
Relevant
virtues
Group pride,
belongingness,
rage at traitors
Fairness, justice, Loyalty,
Caring, kindness honesty
patriotism,
trustworthiness self-sacrifice
Bosses,
respected
professionals
Taboo ideas
(communism,
racism)
Respect, fear
Disgust
Obedience,
deference
Temperance,
chastity, piety,
cleanliness