Moral Deviance Across Cultures - Investigations of the Human Moral Mind

Abstract

This dissertation deals theoretically and empirically with human morality. More specifically, morally deviant actions are the focus of the research that we will present in the course of this work. In addition to morality, the human self and culture are the further pillars on which this work is based. As an overarching goal, we pursue the research question which moral system guides cooperation in different cultures? In seven chapters, we will first deal theoretically, but then mainly empirically, with human morality, the self, and culture. Chapter 1 discusses the three theoretical foci of this work, mainly against the background of evolutionary theories. At the end of this chapter, we will also derive several hypotheses to be tested. In Chapter 2, we take a look at comparative cultural research and prepare the ground for subsequent investigations of cross-cultural similarities and differences in morality. With regard to moral tendencies, our research focuses on comparisons between Egypt, Germany, Japan and the United States of America. Chapters 3 through 6 address independent yet complementary cross-cultural investigations of the human moral mind. In these chapters, we aim to approach our overarching research question by means of a canon of different methods. Eventually, Chapter 7 provides a summary discussion and conclusion. Cross-cultural research on the human moral mind is situated in the field of tension between the poles of the culturally specific and the universally human. The results of our investigations also fall within this field of tension. We will be able to provide strong empirical indications of universal moral domains on the one hand, and present results that demonstrate the massive influence of culture on the calibration of our moral mind on the other. Overall, this dissertation aims to make three contributions: First, we attempt to make a theoretical contribution by synthesizing two leading moral theories and proposing our own moral approach based on them. Second, we develop and test three different instruments that are meant to expand our toolbox for cross-cultural research on morality. Third, we attempt to make an empirical contribution by examining the moral systems of four heterogeneous cultural entities. We are guided by the hope that this dissertation will shed some light on the human disposition that drives us to self-regulate and that enables us to cooperate so profoundly and extensively with others: our morality.