morality
The social intuitionist theory of morality
Moral judgements are driven primarily by emotions and unconscious intuitions rather than rational decision making
The way evolution has prepared us to deal with the moral issues is through a set of moral emotions not through reasoning
Reasoning just works to help us explain to ourselves why we feel some way
Ex. Trolly problem
Difference disappeared when emotion was added
Why morality
Morality regulates social relations, producing cooperation
Cooperation has been one of the most successful evolutionary inventions in Earth history. Teamwork allows individuals to achieve more than the sum of their parts
What is os hard about being cooperative
Organisms are selfish- designed to maximise the fitness of their own genes
BUT organisms are best off when they are selfish when everyone else cooperates
Everyone has the temptation to take more than they put in
The Temptation of Defection: The Prisoner’s Dilemma
Tuesday February 25, 2025
Morality 2
Temptation of Defection
Group Coordination Problems
Common Pool Dilemma
Inability to share a resource (“common pool”) for maximum benefit, because everyone is motivated to take more than their share
Public Goods Dilemma
Inability to produce a shared “good” for maximum benefit, because everyone is motivated to give less than their share
How can cooperation ever be sustainable?
Kin selection
Caring for people who share your genes
Gene ‘seeks’ to maximize itself, not its host
JBS Haldane: rB>C
How do you know someone is your kin?
You don’t: you make estimation through social cues
Fictive (‘fictional’) kin
sororities/ frats
Church (father)
Military: Band of Brothers
Direct Reciprocity
How does cooperation between non-kin people develop?
Tit-for-tat strategy
A gives to B, so B gives to A
Indirect reciprocity
A gives to B, B gives to C, C gives to A (or more) because reliability has been established
Reputation-based reciprocity
Requires and is limited by cognitive abilities to identify and remember reputations
Moral Emotions
Fairness
Ultimatum game
Step 1: A gets money, B gets none
A can transfer some amount to B
B can accept or reject (in which case no one gets nothing)
A offers $2
What should B do? What will B do?
People tend to reject offers under 20%
Third-party punishment (aka altruistic punishment, aka costly punishment)
Incurring the cost of punishing someone for what they did to someone else
In modern society, we have (to some degree) institutionalized third party punishment
The Danger of Moral Emotions
Empathy causes us to be irrational
People gave more money for 1 child to help than more children
Empathy is prejudiced
We feel pain when watching an ingroup member in pain and pleasure when it happens to an outgroup member
Empathy is counter productive
Ex. doctors when performing a surgery
Empathy oversimplifies
Classifying as victim and villain
These emotions are not a good guys on how to act morally
Thursday February 27, 2025
Social Psych 1
Moral pluralism
Proportionality
Rewards or punishments are proportioned to their costs, contributions, effort, merit, guilt
Equality
Equal treatment and equal outcome for individuals
Confirmation bias
“The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion… draws all things else to support and agree with”
The confirmation bias is also a key factor in why first impressions are so important
Type of Motivated Reasoning
Believing and seeing what you want, and dismissing what you don’t
Information you want to believe: can I believe this?
Information you don’t want to believe; must I believe this?
Shapes what info people remember
How long and effortfully people process info for
How charitably people interpret news info
How much evidence people require to be satisfied
How people communicate info to others
What infer people expose themselves to
Kahan ‘At least among ordinary members of the public, individuals with higher science comprehension are even better at fitting the evidence to their group commitments’ That is, they are better at motivated reasoning
Echo chambers and filter bubbles
Surrounding yourself solely with people who agree with you
Surrounding yourself solely with info that agrees with you
So
Don't believe everything that you think
Don’t tie your self worth to you existing beliefs
People who disagree with you aren’t evil
The truth is antifragile- expose yourself to contradictory ideas
Treasure the friends who make you comfortable, but also uncomfortable; they challenge you to grow and expand your understanding of the world.