Explaining Moral Behavior

Explaining moral religions.

Moralizing religions, unlike religions with morally indifferent gods or spirits, appeared only recently in some (but not all) large-scale human societies. A crucial feature of these new religions is their emphasis on proportionality (between deeds and supernatural rewards, between sins and penance, and in the formulation of the Golden Rule, according to which one should treat others as one woul...

Moral emotions and moral behavior.

Moral emotions represent a key element of our human moral apparatus, influencing the link between moral standards and moral behavior. This chapter reviews current theory and research on moral emotions. We first focus on a triad of negatively valenced "self-conscious" emotions-shame, guilt, and embarrassment. As in previous decades, much research remains focused on shame and guilt. We review cur...

Moral Maturation and Moral Conation: a Capacity Approach to Explaining Moral Thought and Action

We set out to address a gap in the management literature by proposing a framework specifying the component capacities organizational actors require to think and act morally. We examine how moral maturation (i.e., moral identity, complexity, and metacognitive ability) and moral conation (i.e., moral courage, efficacy, and ownership) enhance an individual’s moral cognition and propensity to take ...

Exposure to moral relativism compromises moral behavior

Uncanny Moral Behavior

In trying to imitate human moral behavior, will we venture into the moral uncanny valley where the decisions appear superficially moral and yet disgust us? The uncanny valley describes a feeling of eeriness and ominousness which accompanies near-human like appearances and behavior in robots. As the sophistication of physical and virtual actroids has increased, under controlled circumstances the...