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Running Head: SOURCE OF MORALITY

The Source of Morality and It’s Influencing Factors

Lindsay G. Aiken

Glen Allen High School

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Introduction

Morality is the capstone which holds modern, civilized society together. It is the basis

for our civil codes and also our general treatment towards other human and nonhuman beings.

Morality is what halts humanity from tipping over the precipice into anarchy. With this

importance in mind, it is easy to understand the growing curiosity and motivation to

understand the mechanics behind morality. This search spans across the topics of psychology,

culture, and even religion. Even though people are looking in many different places and

fields, they are all aiming to answer the same questions: What is the source(s) of morality, and

if possible, how can we influence it.

What is Morality?

This question is not commonly disputed between researchers as are the rest, because it

is just a simple definition. According to a paper published at the University of San Diego,

morality is “the system through which we determine right and wrong conduct” (The Nature

of…). There is a common misconception in the public between morality and ethics. When

people hear “ethics” they commonly think of it associated with the definition that morality

carries. However, ethics is actually not a synonym of morality. Instead, ethics is “the

philosophical study of morality” (The Nature of…).

What Creates Morality?

This is where people start disagreeing on who is right and wrong. On a website

supported by University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the writer acknowledged that a list
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of potentially correct sources of morality includes culture, religion, feelings, pain and

pleasure, interests, rationality, rights, relationships, and character (What Makes Things, 2018).

Another website, again supported by the University of San Diego, did not disagree

with the above source, but it gave names to every potential source of morality. In “Moral

subjectivism” morality is determined by who the person is, in “Cultural Relativism” it is

determined by the current culture of the person’s surroundings, in “Ethical Egoism” it is

determined by self-interest, in “Divine Command Theory” it is determined by God and/or

religion, in “Virtue Ethics” it is determined by traditional virtues, in “Feminist Ethics” it is

determined by “womens' responses to the relationship of caring,” in “Utilitarianism” it is

determined by the overall worth of whatever action you are debating, in “Kantian Theory” it

is determined by rationality, in “Rightness-Based Theories” it is determined by innate

instincts, and in “Contractarianism” it is determined by right, wrong, and social contract

theory (The Nature of…).

Moral Brain Processes

As for the neural path that moral decisions take, one study by scientists Young and

Dungan mapped the neural processes found in moral decision making. What they found was

not a single part of the brain devoted to moral thinking and decision making, but a

combination of other functions which produced the desired product: Morality.

However, we cannot declare these brain structures that work together to produce

morality as moral brain functions because at the article explains:

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“finding the uniquely moral brain would mean finding brain regions that are
not only dedicated exclusively to moral cognition but also dedicated to all of
moral cognition, across diverse moral contexts (e.g., harm, fairness, loyalty,
respect, purity). In other words, the moral brain would have to manage only
moral judgments and all moral judgments” (Young & Dungan, 2012).

The moral brain is created through a combination of the emotional and social brains.

The VMPC is the key emotional region of the brain involved in moral reasoning and the RTPJ

is the key social region of the brain involved in moral reasoning. It is through a combination

of these and other less crucial areas that our brains are able to process and make decisions of

moral dilemmas.

The Effect of Religion and on Morality

The argument on whether or not Religion has a role in morality revolves around

Euthyphro’s Dilemma conceptualized. Essentially, is something good because God wills it, or

does God will something because it is good? For the purposes of this review it boils down to

the question of if religion created morality or if it was formed around a preexisting sense of it.

Those who believe religion created morality argue that without God, there would be

nothing to base our concepts of “right” and “wrong” on and without him we would have never

been able to set them (drcraigvideos, 2015).

However, those who do not believe that religion creates morality cite studies such as

the one reported on by Emily Underwood which conclude that “Religious and nonreligious

people are equally prone to immoral acts” (Underwood, 2011). Studies also show that legal
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ramifications are equally as likely to influence a person to be moral as religious context

(McCauley, 2012).

Conclusion

After digesting this research, it can be concluded that human’s sense of morality is a

complex beast with interwoven innate and external sources. Ad we cannot definitively prove

any of the proposed hypotheses, all of them must be considered and respected until science

progresses to a point where we can find an answer.

Research List

[drcraigvideos]. (2015, Jan 21). The Moral Argument [Video File]. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxiAikEk2vU

Graham, J., Meindl, P., Beall, E., Johnson, K. M., & Zhang, L. (2016). Cultural differences in

moral judgment and behavior, across and within societies. Current Opinion in

Psychology, 8, 125-130.

McCauley, R. N. (2012, March 22). Are Religious People More Moral than Atheists?

Retrieved March 05, 2018, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/why-

religion-is-natural-and-science-is-not/201203/are-religious-people-more-moral-

atheists

The Nature of Morality and Moral Theories. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2018, from

http://home.sandiego.edu/~baber/gender/MoralTheories.html
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Underwood, E. (2011, September 11). Religious or not, we all misbehave. Retrieved March

05, 2018, from http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/09/religious-or-not-we-all-

misbehave

“What Makes Things Right Or Wrong?” Business Ethics, 2018, philosophia.uncg.edu/phi361-

matteson/module-2-what-is-ethics/what-makes-things-right-or-wrong/.

Young, L., & Dungan, J. (2012). Where in the brain is morality? Everywhere and maybe

nowhere. Social neuroscience, 7(1), 1-10.

Graham, J., Meindl, P., Beall, E., Johnson, K. M., & Zhang, L. (2016). Cultural differences in

moral judgment and behavior, across and within societies. Current Opinion in

Psychology, 8, 125-130.

White, F. A., & Matawie, K. M. (2004). Parental morality and family processes as predictors

of adolescent morality. Journal of Child and Family studies, 13(2), 219-233.