Methods, Models, and the Evolution of Moral Psychology

TL;DR

This paper reviews methods for studying the evolution of moral psychology, exemplifies how guilt evolved through these methods, and discusses strategic scenarios that shaped moral psychological traits.

Contribution

It defends effective research methods, provides a detailed case study on guilt evolution, and identifies key strategic scenarios influencing moral psychology development.

Findings

Effective methods for studying moral evolution

Guilt likely evolved to solve specific social problems

Strategic scenarios shape moral psychological traits

Abstract

Why are we good? Why are we bad? Questions regarding the evolution of morality have spurred an astoundingly large interdisciplinary literature. Some significant subset of this body of work addresses questions regarding our moral psychology: how did humans evolve the psychological properties which underpin our systems of ethics and morality? Here I do three things. First, I discuss some methodological issues, and defend particularly effective methods for addressing many research questions in this area. Second, I give an in-depth example, describing how an explanation can be given for the evolution of guilt---one of the core moral emotions---using the methods advocated here. Last, I lay out which sorts of strategic scenarios generally are the ones that our moral psychology evolved to `solve', and thus which models are the most useful in further exploring this evolution.