Origins of Human Cooperation and Morality

From an evolutionary perspective, morality is a form of cooperation. Cooperation requires individuals either to suppress their own self-interest or to equate it with that of others. We review recent research on the origins of human morality, both phylogenetic (research with apes) and ontogenetic (re...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of psychology 2013-01, Vol.64 (1), p.231-255
Main Authors: TOMASELLO, Michael, VAISH, Amrisha
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Biological Evolution
Child, Preschool
Cooperation
Cooperative Behavior
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Helping Behavior
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Morality
Morals
Pan troglodytes
Phylogenetics
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Skills
Social Behavior
Social interactions. Communication. Group processes
Social psychology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:From an evolutionary perspective, morality is a form of cooperation. Cooperation requires individuals either to suppress their own self-interest or to equate it with that of others. We review recent research on the origins of human morality, both phylogenetic (research with apes) and ontogenetic (research with children). For both time frames we propose a two-step sequence: first a second-personal morality in which individuals are sympathetic or fair to particular others, and second an agent-neutral morality in which individuals follow and enforce group-wide social norms. Human morality arose evolutionarily as a set of skills and motives for cooperating with others, and the ontogeny of these skills and motives unfolds in part naturally and in part as a result of sociocultural contexts and interactions.
ISSN:0066-4308
1545-2085
DOI:10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143812