PS4771: Historical and Conceptual Issues in Psychology Ethics 1

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PS4771 Historical and Conceptual Issues in
PsychologyEthics 1

• Mike Eslea
• Department of Psychology

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Outline

• This Week
• Ethics 1
• Evolutionary origins of ethics morality
• Essay topic The Origins of Virtue
• Next Week
• Ethics 2
• Some other theories of morality
• Ethical milestones in the history of Psychology

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Is Human Nature Competitive, Aggressive?

• Thomas Hobbes Leviathan 1651
• Life in its natural state is a war of all
  against all and solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
  and short
• A supreme absolute authority is needed to
  maintain law, enforce the social contract and
  impose religion morality
• Leviathan was a major influence on Darwin
• Echoes of Leviathan can be found in modern
  arguments for liberal democracy
• E.g. Steven Pinkers The Blank Slate

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Is Human Nature Co-operative, Altruistic?

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778
• Argues that mankind would naturally be good and
  kind (a noble savage) but has become corrupted
  by society
• Authority is necessary to enforce the general
  will of the people
• Rousseau was a big influence on Marx and other
  Socialists

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Human Evolution

• In fact, humans have been social animals for at
  least 65 million years

• Our physical evolution has been inextricably
  linked to our social evolution

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Sociobiologys Insight

• When most people think about evolution and human
  instincts, they are likely to focus on the
  Hobbesian war
• Social Darwinism eugenics
• Sociobiologists (E.O. Wilson, Bill Hamilton, Bob
  Trivers, Richard Dawkins) realised that it is
  co-operation that really needs explanation
• Why do people feel compassion? Give to charity?
  Share food? Give blood? Help strangers? Sacrifice
  themselves in war?
• How do people learn not to be aggressive?
• Game theorists have proved that co-operation can
  evolve

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Prisoners Dilemma
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Evolution Of Co-operation

• Four main processes
• 1. Kin selection
• 2. Reciprocal altruism
• 3. Reputation for generosity
• 4. Zahavian signalling
• These ideas comprise the backbone of Matt
  Ridleys Origin of Virtue

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Kin Selection

• The most remarkable conclusion of the selfish
  gene viewpoint
• Animals can ensure the survival of their genes in
  two ways
• By having offspring themselves
• By helping their relatives to have offspring
• The social insects had been a big problem for
  Darwinism!
• Kin selection explains their behaviour

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Reciprocal Altruism

• Perhaps the most obvious reason to share or help
  in the hope that the favour will be returned
• Grooming (e.g. most primates)
• Food sharing (e.g. chimps meat, bats blood)
• Mutual Symbiosis

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Reputation Enhancement

• Animals gain an evolutionary advantage by having
  a reputation for generosity
• Reef fish that become known as good cleaners get
  more customers than those perceived as lazy

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Zahavian Signals

• Named after Amotz Zahavi
• Sometimes called the Handicap Principle
• Ostentatious generosity, like other flamboyant
  displays, is an advertisement of genetic quality
• To work, a Zahavian signal must be evolutionarily
  expensive, so it is hard to fake

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All Four Apply To Humans

• Kin selection
• In the EEA, most of the humans in your band would
  be relatives
• Reciprocal altruism
• Allows division of labour and so makes complex
  societies possible
• Reputation
• Becomes vastly more important with the
  development of language
• Zahavian signals
• Potlatches, bling, religion, art
• Testosterone, scars?

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Universal Morality

• If human morality is evolved, it should (like
  language) show universal fundamental features
  beneath the surface gloss of culture
• Donald Browns Universal People
• All cultures have etiquette, hospitality, feasts,
  sexual modesty, food taboos, private toileting,
  status prestige, trade, reciprocity,
  retaliation, gifts, coalitions, laws rights
  obligations, punishment, conflict, leadership
  government, property, inheritance (and a vast
  list of other things)

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If a card has a vowel on one side, it has an
even number on the other side.
Wason Selection Tasks
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People under 18 are not allowed to drink alcohol
Beer
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Juice
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Research on Moral Dilemmas

• Marc Hauser takes the same approach to morality
  as Chomsky does to grammar
• The underlying structure is revealed in
  cross-cultural experiments

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• A runaway train is coming down the hill. Five
  people are working on the line in its path. You
  are standing by the points, and can divert the
  train on to a siding where only one person is
  working
• Is it OK to throw the switch?
• Are you obliged to throw the switch?

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• A runaway train is coming down the hill. Five
  people are working on the line in its path. You
  are standing on a bridge above the track, and
  next to you is a very large man heavy enough to
  stop the train before it reaches the five
  workers.
• Is it right to throw the man off the bridge?

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• You are a surgeon in a hospital. In your ward are
  five dying men each with a different vital
  organ failing. No transplants are available, but
  there is one healthy man in the waiting room. His
  organs could save all five.
• Is it right to kill the healthy man?

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Universal Morality

• People from different cultures tend to respond
  similarly to these dilemmas
• BUT they all find the reasons for their decisions
  very difficult to elucidate
• In other words, the moral reasoning process is
  largely unconscious based on feelings rather
  than logic

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Reasons to be Moral

• So there is good evidence for a universal evolved
  morality
• If the four reasons for being nice to one another
  are all there is, where does our moral sense come
  from?
• The need to watch out for cheaters and free
  riders
• To make sure we are not ourselves taken for
  cheaters or free riders

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BUT!

• We know that (almost all) humans will cheat, lie
  and do despicable things under certain
  circumstances
• E.g. The Milgram experiments
• Studies of employee theft, student plagiarism,
  childrens dishonesty
• The truth about Noble Savages
• So how do we convince others we are NOT cheaters?
• First, we must convince ourselves!
• Then we signal our commitment via EMOTIONS

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Delusions of Goodness

• So people develop all sorts of rationalisations
  for their behaviour
• Religion
• Politics
• Patriotism
• Honour
• Such rationalisations can become memes with
  their own dynamics
• But rationalisations are not necessarily rational

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The Essay Question

• Matt Ridley's 'Origins of Virtue' was first
  published exactly ten years ago. Imagine that, to
  mark this anniversary, The Guardian newspaper has
  commissioned you to write a new review of the
  book, assessing its impact and considering how
  well its argument has stood the test of time.