This document summarizes six research papers on defining morality from biological and psychological perspectives. The papers discuss how genes influence empathy and altruism as adaptive responses to environmental threats. They also examine how personality and culture interact, how obedience studies have been misinterpreted, the relationship between childhood attachment and ideological beliefs, and the need to assess business students' moral development. In conclusion, defining morality is complex due to many individual and societal variables, and assigning blame to concepts like economic systems reflects human tendencies to perceive inanimate things as forces of good or evil.

1. Running head: DEFINING MORALITY 1
Defining Morality Relative to its Basis and its Purpose Biologically and Psychologically
Jeremiah B. Watson
Del Mar College

2. DEFINING MORALITY 2
Defining Morality Relative to its Basis and its Purpose Biologically and Psychologically
INTRODUCTION
This paper serves as an exploratory analysis of six scientific research papers and review
articles that describe morality relative to its basis and purpose, both biologically and
psychologically. The aforementioned works each independently serve to further elucidate
causalties about the development of moral standards and qualifications for adherence to those
standards. Matters that are addressed explicitly are as follows: personal and social ethics,
political and business ethics, ideological dissonance and accord among proximal and aggregate
social structures; the biological, genetic and epigenetic bases regarding empathy and altruism;
and data analysis from prior psychological experiments concerning morality. As the works
discussed here endeavor to approach the scientific basis for morality from avenues of approach
distinct from one another, a thesis is provided for each work individually in order to furnish a
coherent framework for a congruent analysis of the scientific nature of morality.
Communicative Genes in the Evolution of Empathy and Altruism
In this paper, Buck (2011) explains that genes can be viewed as a complex
communication system that can be likened to interpersonal communication. Genes are switched
on, off, or fluctuate in productivity based on the environment. Consequently, the same can be
said in regards to genes that regulate the empathy and altruism responses. Essentially, levels of
empathy and altruism within a community may correlate to the environmental hazards or lack
thereof faced by the individuals within the community in order to ensure the most biologically
sound population in light of their circumstance. According to Buck (2011), these changes occur
not simply consciously and subconsciously during interpersonal relations and social norm

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establishment but rather occur simultaneously within the parameters of genetics and epigenetics
while also effecting transgenerational genetics and epigenetics.
Buck (2011) also exemplifies that, unfortunately, in regards to the empathy-altruism
hypothesis, wherein an established group, the needs and wants of one or many members often
evokes another member or members to develop empathetic-based emotions that induce altruistic
responses; what is viewed as altruistic to an in-group may compel members to commit violence
toward an out-group. This points to the notion that societies exist within established ethical
standards. Consequently, this viewpoint may also explain why ethical standards developed by all
societies can have fundamentally similar ideologies in regards to morality, but can still differ
enough to cause strife between certain cultures and relative acceptance among others. The adage
of genetics and epigenetics to this hypothesis warrants further research into the xenophobia
associated with the biological nature of "true" empathy and altruism (Buck, 2011).
Personality Profiles of Cultures: Patterns of Ethos
McCrae (2009) argues that the development of ethos within communities and cohorts
occurs continually through new generations who experience the current state and structure of the
world while simultaneously operating within the biological constraints of their evolutionarily
inherited psychology. McCrae's (2009) main claim is that personality is developed
evolutionarily by individuals adapting to external stimuli within the collective of their culture,
essentially calling into question whether developed ethical standards are universal in some
aspects and subjective in others. This provides an even more objective avenue for further
research regarding the causes of specific behaviors and whether or not they are "normal," or if a
scale of normal or abnormal should even be considered (McCrae, 2009).
Contesting the Nature of Conformity: What Milgram and Zimbardo's Studies Really Show

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Haslam and Reicher (2012) argue that while Milgram's and Zimbardo's studies were
replicable and consistent, they have not been interpreted correctly. Haslam and Reicher's (2012)
main claim is that the current consensus within the scientific community regarding "conformity,
obedience and the banality of evil" is not as simple or predictable as Milgram's and Zimbardo's
studies would suggest. Studies performed by Haslam and Reicher (2012) suggest that, for a
hierarchy to be formed, there must be common ground regarding ideology. Thus, if within a
group of people there are ideologies spanning in different directions, the group will presumably
be split into many smaller groups depending on the number of people within the group and the
span of archetypes within the group. This idea may seem radical to some because it would place
more of the blame for mass atrocities on general conformists, not just the leadership (Haslam &
Reicher, 2012). To clarify, cognitive dissonance would be the driving factor for the conformists,
which will be expounded upon in the following paragraph.
A Calculated Morality: Development and Validation of a Business Specific Test of Moral
Reasoning
In this study conducted by Steele and Branson (2014), the business moral reasoning test
is proposed in light of the all too common dubious acts committed by business people. Specific
high-profile business people are exemplified within the study to extenuate the fact that elite
credentials from top-rated business schools, while effective in the education of the ins and outs
of business, do not adequately prepare or assess students' moral development regarding ethical
decision-making in business. Perhaps the most pertinent bit of information within this study is
that those who attain the post-conventional level of reasoning may not adhere to that level of
reasoning in a business setting where it is acceptable to "bluff" or "appropriate," while in other
circles, bluffing could be considered lying and appropriating could be considered plagiarism.

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This seems to be a form of cognitive dissonance; wherein a person could live a socially
acceptable and ethically grounded life while unconsciously committing unethical acts within
specific settings in which those acts are considered normal (Steele & Branson, 2014).
Interpersonal Attachment and Patterns of Ideological Belief
Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), the left wing social dominance orientation (SDO),
and those who associate themselves with this left-right paradigm are the focus of this paper. It is
suggested that upon choosing between the right wing (conservatives), the left wing (liberals), and
the degree to which they are aligned can be traced back to the manner in which the individual
experienced the world as a child. The worldviews represented are the dangerous world beliefs
and competitive jungle beliefs; anxiety promotes RWA indirectly by promoting dangerous world
beliefs, and avoidance promotes SDO indirectly by promoting competitive jungle beliefs (Weber
& Frederico, 2007).
This paper, in particular, has comparatively little empirical evidence in association with
its claims. This falls in line with McCrae's (2009) patterns of ethos, in which he states that
outside of the accepted personality profiles, it may be impossible to formulate internally
consistent measures of ethos. There are simply too many variables and fluctuations in stance,
especially due to changes in ethos based on context (Haslam & Reicher, 2012). For example,
RWA and SDO are associated with liberals and conservatives respectively, where liberals are
concerned with individualizing foundations, and conservatives are concerned with both
individualizing and binding moral foundations equally, with less emphasis on individualizing
foundations when compared to liberals (Frederico et al., 2006). Communism, on the other hand,
is a form of left-wing politics that values an authoritarian structure, ostensibly the opposite of
liberalism in regards to authoritarianism. Conversely, in current US politics, libertarianism is

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quickly gaining notoriety and ostensibly values individualizing moral foundations above all else
while also valuing a capitalistic structure that is similar to the conservative’s view of economics
(Iyer et al., 2012).
CONCLUSION
Morality is a broad term used to define the ethical standards and social norms that are
developed by individuals, social groups, and societies through personal experiences, available
resources, stress levels, genetics, epigenetics, and transgenerational epigenetics. Also, while post-
conventional moral reasoning is observed more commonly among the educated class, it is not
necessarily associated with high intelligence levels, and it must be remembered that it is easier to
observe individuals that are in close proximity and that require fewer resources to observe. For
instance, according to Steele and Branson (2014), business majors may not currently receive
adequate education involving ethics in philosophy, which may correlate to the inordinate amount
of corruption within the business class. Contrastingly, post-conventional reasoning has been
observed among the uneducated through specific personal experiences (Steele & Branson, 2014).
Ultimately, it seems that the feasibility of accuracy in the scientific research of ethics
becomes radically more problematic the further you get from the individual as combined
variables, such as political climate, systems of government, social tension, wealth, welfare,
industry, time, proximity, researcher ignorance, and researcher bias, are often insuperable.
In retrospect, it seems that humankind has retroactively retained its despondence and
dissonance through ignorance, assigning culpability for suffering upon inanimate objects and
concepts that we subjectively perceive to exemplify malevolence. For example, ideas that may
invoke immediate subjective emotional responses include democracy, socialism, and capitalism,
none of which are inherently malevolent or benevolent; yet, once inanimate concepts become

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established working systems, our volition determines their outcome. What does that say about
us?

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REFERENCES
Buck R. (2011). Communicative Genes in the Evolution of Empathy and Altruism. Behavior
Genetics, 41, 876-888. doi: 10.1007/s10519-011-9456-3
Federico C. M., Weber C. R., Ergun D., Hunt C. (2013). Mapping the Connections between
Politics and Morality: The Multiple Sociopolitical Orientations Involved in Moral
Intuition. Political Psychology, 34, 589-604. doi: 10.1111/pops.12006
Federico C. M., Weber C. (2007). Interpersonal Attachment and Patterns of Ideological Belief.
Political Psychology, 28 (4), 389-416.
Haslam S.A., Reicher S.D. (2012). Contesting the Nature of Conformity: What Milgram and
Zimbardo's Studies Really Show. PLoS Biology, 10, 1-3. doi:
10.1371/journal.pbio.1001426
Iyer R., Koleva S., Graham J., Ditto P., Haidt J. (2012). Understanding Libertarian Morality:
The Psychological Dispositions of Self-Identified Libertarians. PLoS One, 7, 1-24. doi:
10. 1371/journal.prone. 0042366
McCrae R.R. (2009). Personality Profiles of Cultures: Patterns of Ethos. European Journal of
Personality, 23, 205-227. doi:10.1002/per.712
Steele L. N., Branson L. (2014). A Calculated Morality: Development and Validation of a
Business Specific Test of Moral Reasoning. International Journal of Business and Public
Administration, 11, 73-83.