{"id":69673,"date":"2022-06-23T14:18:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T18:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=69673"},"modified":"2022-06-29T09:04:36","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T13:04:36","slug":"psychology-morality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/psychology-morality\/","title":{"rendered":"Morality: The Psychology of Ethical Behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How do people make <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/moral-choices\/\">moral choices<\/a>? What is the key factor that determines whether people will do the right thing, ethically speaking? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In psychology, morality is a subject that has been studied extensively. One of the key influences on people&#8217;s moral decisions seems to be distance\u2014how far or close they are to the situation both physically and emotionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/moral-psychology\/\">psychology of morality<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-moral-environment\">Moral Environment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>How close we are to a situation greatly affects how we respond to it. For instance, we might jump into action if we see a child in danger but not feel compelled to act if we read a story about child abuse. Similarly, if we know the child who\u2019s in danger, we\u2019re much more likely to do something about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How directly we act upon a situation also changes how we approach it. Notably, people generally consider <strong>allowing a bad thing to happen<\/strong> to be much more acceptable than <strong>doing a bad thing personally;<\/strong> in Sapolsky\u2019s terms, <em>omission <\/em>(failing to prevent an act) isn\u2019t as bad as c<em>ommission <\/em>(committing the act). For example, I might allow someone else to vandalize a disliked neighbor\u2019s house, even if I would never vandalize it myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Finally, as with many things, we aren\u2019t totally rational in our moralizing. <\/strong>People who would never steal physical copies of music albums or video games will happily (and illegally) download them from the internet. The reduced risk of getting caught may explain that to some extent, but there\u2019s also the fact that clicking a download link doesn\u2019t really <em>feel <\/em>like stealing, and thus pirating feels more acceptable than tucking a CD into your jacket does. There\u2019s also a greater sense of distance\u2014both physical and emotional\u2014between you and the victim: Rather than stealing from a shopkeeper whom you can see and talk to, you\u2019re stealing from an artist who might be on the other side of the world.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-developing-morality\"><strong>Developing Morality<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In psychology, morality is considered subjective: People don\u2019t all share the same morals\u2014even people raised in the same cultures can have wildly different ideas of what\u2019s right and wrong, based on their own experiences and predispositions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To help understand how a person develops a personal moral code, psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/basics\/ethics-and-morality#the-stages-of-moral-development\">breaks moral development into three stages<\/a>, with each stage helping to shape the ones that come after it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1. Pre-conventional: <\/strong>the earliest and least-developed stage of morality, where the person\u2019s ideas of right and wrong are based on obeying authority figures and avoiding punishment. In other words, the person doesn\u2019t yet have what we\u2019d recognize as a moral code, just a set of rules to follow.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. Conventional: <\/strong>the stage of morality when the person simply accepts what society says is right and wrong. This differs from the previous stage because the person is now doing what he or she believes is right, rather than just seeking praise and avoiding punishment. In other words, the person <em>does <\/em>have a moral code, it\u2019s just a reflection of the moral codes of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3. Post-conventional: <\/strong>the final stage of moral development, when the person begins developing his or her own moral code. That code will be heavily influenced by the previous two stages, but at this point the person recognizes that people have different ideas of what\u2019s right and what\u2019s wrong. For example, one person might believe that stealing is <em>always <\/em>wrong, while another might believe that stealing to feed your family is the right thing to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do people make moral choices? What is the key factor that determines whether people will do the right thing, ethically speaking? In psychology, morality is a subject that has been studied extensively. One of the key influences on people&#8217;s moral decisions seems to be distance\u2014how far or close they are to the situation both physically and emotionally. Keep reading to learn about the psychology of morality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":44621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,9],"tags":[652],"class_list":["post-69673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethics","category-psychology","tag-behave","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Morality: The Psychology of Ethical Behavior - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In psychology, morality is a subject that has been studied extensively. 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Learn about the key factors that influence ethical behavior.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/psychology-morality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-23T18:18:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-29T13:04:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/justice-statue.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"971\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"528\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/psychology-morality\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/psychology-morality\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Morality: The Psychology of Ethical Behavior\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-23T18:18:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-29T13:04:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/psychology-morality\/\"},\"wordCount\":605,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/psychology-morality\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/justice-statue.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Behave\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Ethics\",\"Psychology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/psychology-morality\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/psychology-morality\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/psychology-morality\/\",\"name\":\"Morality: The Psychology of Ethical Behavior - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/psychology-morality\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/psychology-morality\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/justice-statue.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-23T18:18:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-29T13:04:36+00:00\",\"description\":\"In psychology, morality is a subject that has been studied extensively. 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