The effect of evolutionary moral foundations on cooperative behavior through individual and cultural variables

In this study, which aims to examine the evolutionary foundations of human morality, two theories that construe morality as a phenomenon that is socially constructed on certain foundations brought by human evolutionary history, namely Moral Foundations Theory and Morality as Cooperation Theory, were taken as a framework. The relationships among the foundations proposed by these two theories and cooperative behavior, which promoted human survival in evolutionary history, were investigated. The contributions of altruism, empathy, dark triad, individualism, and collectivism to these relationships were also investigated. The first study (N = 171) aimed to examine the predictor effect of evolutionary moral foundations on cooperation and to investigate the mediator effects of altruism, empathy, and the dark triad on this effect. This study also experimentally examined the moderator effect of cultural variables by activating individualist and collectivist cultural characteristics of the participants through priming. In the first study, which can be seen as the pilot work of the second study, a scale adaptation was performed for the outcome variable, cooperation, through the evaluation of the viability of the scales used in the study. Findings of this study suggested that the two theories generally predict coooperative behavior: some of the dimensions increased cooperation through altruism whereas some others decreased cooperation through the dark triad traits. In the more comprehensive second study (N = 868), cooperation was measured both in terms of attitudes and behaviors by using a deception technique. Since there was no significant difference between the analysis results of the behavior-attitude models and the cooperation measures, the predictive effects of the theory dimensions on the general concept of cooperation and the mediatior effects were examined. In the second study, individualistic and collectivistic cultural characteristics were also included in the model as mediator variables. According to the results, Morality as Cooperation explained cooperation in its total effect at a higher level than the Moral Foundations Theory. In the singular variable effects of the dimensions, it showed direct positive relationships with care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, group, and property cooperation. As for the mediating effects, altruism, empathy, and collectivism increased cooperation, while the dark triad traits and individualism decreased it. Consequently, morality built on evolutionary codes is not independent of social and cultural influence. It makes more sense to evaluate the dimensions of the theories within relevant social and cultural contexts.