Hunter-gatherers Agree on What is Moral, but Not Who Is Moral

“They disagreed on who among them had the most moral character,” says Kristopher Smith, a Penn postdoctoral fellow and lead paper author.

Smith and Coren Apicella, an associate professor of Psychology, had 94 judges rank their campmates on global character and relevant character traits for a total of 824 observations.

The Hadza live in small nomadic groups and move from group to group so that the social structure of each group frequently changes.

Scientists suspect this nomadic way of living gives insight into the origins of human cooperation. Although the researchers note that the Hadza are a modern people, living in modern times, their way of living is more similar to how human ancestors lived than in western societies.

“It’s not that the Hadza do not have a concept of morality or don’t care about it. They agreed on what traits contributed to moral character. But they cannot agree on who exemplifies it,” says Smith.

Previous work by Apicella and Smith looking at generosity found that this trait changed depending on the group dynamic. A generous group led members to be more generous, and a group that didn’t share much led to others not sharing as well.

It may be this mobility and changing group dynamics that drive their current findings as well, as Apicella notes that “the changing of groups and behavior may make it difficult for individuals to track and agree on moral reputations.”

From the 1,000-foot morality perspective, “this suggests that, for the Hadza, there is little consistent moral behavior across situations, and that reputation may have played a smaller role in the evolution of morality,” says Smith.

“Understanding how moral psychology differs across cultures and in different social systems may provide insight into ways to improve our interactions with one another, and maybe overcome moral disagreements in our society,” summarizes Smith.

This research was supported by the Templeton Religion Trust and the Moral Beacons Project.

Study: Smith, Kristopher and Apicella, Coren. Hadza hunter-gatherers disagree on perceptions of moral character (2019) Social Psychological and Personality Science. Online before print September 5, 2019.

Social Psychological and Personality Science (SPPS) is an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), the Association for Research in Personality (ARP), the European Association of Social Psychology (EASP), and the Society for Experimental Social Psychology (SESP). Social Psychological and Personality Science publishes innovative and rigorous short reports of empirical research on the latest advances in personality and social psychology.

Contacts and sources:
Society for Personality and Social Psychology