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The objectivity of moral norms is a top-down cultural construct

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2018

Burton Voorhees ,
Dwight Read  and
Liane Gabora
Burton Voorhees
Affiliation:
Center for Science, Athabasca University, Athabasca, Alberta, T9S 3A3, Canada. [email protected]://science.athabascau.ca/staff-pages/burtv
Dwight Read
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095. [email protected]://www.anthro.ucla,edu/faculty/dwight-read
Liane Gabora
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, British Columbia, V1V 1V7, Canada. [email protected]://people.ok.ubc.ca/lgabora
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Abstract

Encultured individuals see the behavioral rules of cultural systems of moral norms as objective. In addition to prescriptive regulation of behavior, moral norms provide templates, scripts, and scenarios regulating the expression of feelings and triggered emotions arising from perceptions of norm violation. These allow regulated defensive responses that may arise as moral idea systems co-opt emotionally associated biological survival instincts.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e116
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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