Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T15:09:26.252Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Is all morality or just prosociality externalized?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2018

Michael J. Poulin*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260. [email protected] https://ubwp.buffalo.edu/scope/

Abstract

It is more likely that externalized morality that facilitated cooperation (externalized prosociality) was selected for versus other types of moral impulses. Recent research suggests that those other moral impulses may actually be at root prosocial, in that judgments about them are indirectly about avoidance of harm. Externalized prosociality may help explain why prosocial behavior benefits individuals.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brown, S. L., Nesse, R. M., Vinokur, A. D. & Smith, D. M. (2003) Providing social support may be more beneficial than receiving it: Results from a prospective study of mortality. Psychological Science 14:320–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caprara, G. V. & Steca, P. (2005) Self-efficacy beliefs as determinants of prosocial behavior conducive to life satisfaction across ages. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 24:191217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cialdini, R. B. & Kenrick, D. T. (1976) Altruism as hedonism: A social development perspective on the relationship of negative mood state and helping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 34:907–14.Google Scholar
Cialdini, R. B., Reno, R. R. & Kallgren, C. A. (1990) A focus theory of normative conduct: Recycling the concept of norms to reduce littering in public places. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 58:1015–26.Google Scholar
Cooper, R., DeJong, D. V., Forsythe, R. & Ross, T. W. (1996) Cooperation without reputation: Experimental evidence from Prisoner's Dilemma games. Games and Economic Behavior 12(2):187218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, E., Aknin, L. & Norton, M. (2014) Prosocial spending and happiness: Using money to benefit others pays off. Current Directions in Psychological Science 23:4147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, K. & Schein, C. (2016) No absolutism here: Harm predicts moral judgment 30× better than disgust – Commentary on Scott, Inbar, & Rozin (2016). Perspectives on Psychological Science 11:325–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gray, K., Schein, C. & Ward, A. F. (2014) The myth of harmless wrongs in moral cognition: Automatic dyadic completion from sin to suffering. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143:1600–15.Google Scholar
Haidt, J., Koller, S. H. & Dias, M. G. (1993) Affect, culture, and morality, or is it wrong to eat your dog? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65:613–28.Google Scholar
Nowak, M. A. (2006) Five rules for the evolution of cooperation. Science 314:1560–63.Google Scholar
Poulin, M. J. (2014) Volunteering predicts health among those who value others: Two national studies. Health Psychology 33:120–29.Google Scholar
Poulin, M. J., Brown, S. L., Dillard, A. J. & Smith, D. M. (2013) Giving to others and the association between stress and mortality. American Journal of Public Health 103:1649–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poulin, M. J. & Holman, E. A. (2013) Helping hands, healthy body? Oxytocin receptor gene and prosocial behavior interact to buffer the association between stress and physical health. Hormones and Behavior 63:510–17.Google Scholar
Rand, D. G. (2016) Cooperation, fast and slow: Meta-analytic evidence for a theory of social heuristics and self-interested deliberation. Psychological Science 27:1192–206.Google Scholar
Schein, C., Ritter, R. S. & Gray, K. (2016) Harm mediates the disgust-immorality link. Emotion 16:862–76.Google Scholar