People living in larger vs. smaller social networks have a more one-dimensional view of morality

What is it about?

We measure variation in whether people see morality as varying along many different dimensions ("localized") or varying along a single dimension from bad to good ("generalized"). We find that people living in large social networks show more generalized morality, both in a hunter-gatherer field site and in an international survey. An agent-based model and lab experiments suggest that generalized morality might be effective for finding cooperative partners in large social networks. A historical analysis using natural language processing suggests that perceptions of morality have become increasingly generalized over the last 200 years.

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Photo by Philippe Oursel on Unsplash

Photo by Philippe Oursel on Unsplash

Why is it important?

From a basic standpoint, this research shows how people's moral intuitions are influenced by the characteristics of their social network. From an applied perspective, our research suggests that people may judge others more based on first impressions within large social networks.

Perspectives