“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”.

Homo economicus versus Homo Sapiens Chapt 7. The Moral Foundations of Politics

Chapt 7. The Moral Foundations of PoliticsHomo economicus versus Homo Sapiens

Harm/Care

Fairness

Loyalty

Authority

Sanctity

“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.

Chapt 7. The Moral Foundations of Politics Sidebar on Innateness

The Moral Foundations1: 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 womenGlocker 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 womenGlocker et al PNAS 2009

Baby schema modulates the brain reward system in nulliparous womenGlocker 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 womenGlocker 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.

Liberal and conservative caring

The Moral Foundations1: The Care/Harm Foundation

Fairness Left and Right

The Moral Foundations2. Fairness/Cheating

A car decorated with emblems of loyalty, and a sign modified to reject one kind of loyalty

The Moral Foundations3. Loyalty/Betrayal

Two rather different valuations of the Authority/subversion foundation

The Moral Foundations4. Authority/Subversion

Two different views of the Sanctity/degradation foundation

The Moral Foundations5. Sanctity/Degradation

Violations of the Sanctity Foundation“Life of Brian”

“Look on the Bright Side of Life”

From Freedomoutpost.com

From Birtherreport.com

Violations of the Sanctity & Authority Foundations

Care/ harm Fairness/ cheating

Loyalty/ betrayal

Authority/ subversion

Sanctity/ degradation

Adaptive challenge

Protect and care for young, vulnerable or injured kin

Reap benefits of two-way partnerships with non-kin

Reap benefits of cohesive coalitions

Forge beneficial relationships within hierarchies

Avoid microbes and parasites

Original triggers

Suffering, distress, or neediness expressed by one’s kin

Cheating, cooperation, deception

Threat or challenge to group

Signs of dominance and submission

Waste products, diseased people

New triggers

Baby seals, cute cartoon characters

Marital fidelity, broken vending machines

Sports teams, nations

Bosses, respected professionals

Taboo ideas (communism, racism)

Characteristic emotions

Compassion, empathy

Anger, gratitude, guilt

Group pride, belongingness, rage at traitors

Respect, fear Disgust

Relevant virtues

Caring, kindness

Fairness, justice, honesty trustworthiness

Loyalty, patriotism, self-sacrifice

Obedience, deference

Temperance, chastity, piety, cleanliness