Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Culture points the moral compass: Shared basis of culture and morality

  • Review Article
  • Published:
Culture and Brain

Abstract

The present work reviews moral judgment from the perspective of culture. Culture is a dynamic system of human beings interacting with their environment, and morality is both a product of this system and a means of maintaining it. When members of a culture engage in moral judgment, they communicate their “social morality” and gain a reputation as a productive member who contributes to the culture’s prosperity. People in different cultures emphasize different moral domains, which is often understood through the individualism-collectivism distinction that is widely utilized in cultural psychology. However, traditional morality research lacks the interactive perspective of culture, where people communicate with shared beliefs about what is good or bad. As a consequence, past work has had numerous limitations and even potential confounds created by methodologies that are grounded in the perspective of WEIRD (i.e., Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) cultures. Great attention should be paid to the possibly misleading assumption that researchers and participants share the same understanding of the stimuli. We must address this bias in sampling and in the minds of researchers and better clarify the concept of culture in intercultural morality research. The theoretical and practical findings from research on culture can then contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms of moral judgment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ames, D. L., & Fiske, S. T. (2010). Cultural neuroscience. Asian Journal of Social Pscyhology, 13, 72–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Azuma, H. (1984). Kodomo ni mono wo oshieru koto. [To teach children.] Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten

    Google Scholar 

  • Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497–529. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beal, B. (2020). What are the irreducible basic elements of morality? A critique of the debate over monism and pluralism in moral psychology. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(2), 273–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bedford, O., & Hwang, K. K. (2003). Guilt and shame in Chinese culture: A cross-cultural framework from the perspective of morality and identity. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 33, 127–144. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5914.00210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benet-Martínez, V., & Oishi, S. (2008). Culture and personality. In O. P. John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 542–567). New York: Guilford Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Betancourt, H., & López, S. R. (1993). The study of culture, ethnicity, and race in American psychology. American Psychologist, 48, 629–637. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.48.6.629

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bloom, A. H. (1977). Two dimensions of moral reasoning: Social principledness and social humanism in cross-cultural perspective. The Journal of Social Psychology, 101, 29–44. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1977.9923981

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brady, W. J., Crockett, M. J., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2020). The MAD model of moral contagion: The role of motivation, attention, and design in the spread of moralized content online. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(4), 978–1010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, C. M., & Matsuo, A. (2020). Emotional reactions to self-inconsistency and self-conflict in Japan and the US. Culture and Brain, 8(2), 166–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buchtel, E. E., Guan, Y., Peng, Q., Su, Y., Sang, B., Chen, S. X., & Bond, M. H. (2015). Immorality east and west: Are immoral behaviors especially harmful, or especially uncivilized? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41, 1382–1394. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215595606

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carnes, N. C., Lickel, B., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (2015). Shared perceptions: Morality is embedded in social contexts. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41, 351–362. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214566187

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clifford, S., Iyengar, V., Cabeza, R., & Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (2015). Moral foundations vignettes: A standardized stimulus database of scenarios based on moral foundations theory. Behavior Research Methods, 47, 1178–1198. doi:https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-014-0551-2

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, A. B. (2015). Religion’s profound influences on psychology: Morality, intergroup relations, self-construal, and enculturation. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24, 77–82. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414553265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, D., Nisbett, R. E., Bowdle, B. F., & Schwarz, N. (1996). Insult, aggression, and the southern culture of honor: An experimental ethnography. Journal of personality and social psychology, 70(5), 945–960

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Côté, S., Piff, P. K., & Willer, R. (2013). For whom do the ends justify the means? social class and utilitarian moral judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104, 490–503. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030931

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Crimston, D., Bain, P. G., Hornsey, M. J., & Bastian, B. (2016). Moral expansiveness: Examining variability in the extension of the moral world. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111, 636–653. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000086

  • Crimston, D., Hornsey, M. J., Bain, P. G., & Bastian, B. (2018). Toward a psychology of moral expansiveness. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27, 14–19. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417730888

  • Curry, O. S., & Dunbar, R. I. (2013). Sharing a joke: The effects of a similar sense of humor on affiliation and altruism. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34, 125–129. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.11.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeScioli, P., & Kurzban, R. (2013). A solution to the mysteries of morality. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 477–496. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029065

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dien, D. S. F. (1982). A Chinese perspective on Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. Developmental Review, 2, 331–341. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/0273-2297(82)90017-X

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellemers, N. (2017). Morality and the regulation of social behavior: Groups as moral anchors. London: Routledge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ellemers, N., & van den Bos, K. (2012). Morality in groups: On the social-regulatory functions of right and wrong. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6, 878–889. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellemers, N., & van der Toorn, J. (2015). Groups as moral anchors. Current Opinion in Psychology, 6, 189–194. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.08.018

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellemers, N., van der Toorn, J., Paunov, Y., & van Leeuwen, T. (2019). The psychology of morality: A review and analysis of empirical studies published from 1940 through 2017. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 23, 332–366. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868318811759

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Eom, K., & Heejung, S. H. (2015). Cultural psychological theory. In B. Gawronski, & G. V. Bodenhausen (Eds.), Theory and explanation in social psychology (pp. 328–344). New York: Guilford Publications

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardner, W. L., Gabriel, S., & Lee, A. Y. (1999). “I” value freedom, but “we” value relationships: Self-construal priming mirrors cultural differences in judgment. Psychological Science, 10, 321–326. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gherghel, C., Hashimoto, T., & Nastas, D. (2017, September). Moral foundations among Romanians and Japanese. Poster presented at The Japanese Group Dynamics Association Annual Conference, Tokyo, Japan

  • Gilligan, C. (1977). In a different voice: Women’s conceptions of self and of morality. Harvard Educational Review, 47, 481–517. doi:https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.47.4.g6167429416hg5l0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giner-Sorolla, R., Kupfer, T., & Sabo, J. (2018). What makes moral disgust special? An integrative functional review. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 57, 223–289. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2017.10.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goh, J. O., Chee, M. W., Tan, J. C., Venkatraman, V., Hebrank, A., Leshikar, E. D. … Park, D. C. (2007). Age and culture modulate object processing and object—scene binding in the ventral visual area. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 7, 44–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goh, J. O., Leshikar, E. D., Sutton, B. P., Tan, J. C., Sim, S. K. Y., Hebrank, A. C., et al. (2010). Culture differences in neural processing of faces and houses in the ventral visual cortex. SCAN, 5, 227–235

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Graham, J. (2014). Morality beyond the lab. Science, 345, 1242. doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1259500

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Graham, J., Haidt, J., & Nosek, B. A. (2009). Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 1029–1046. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015141

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Graham, J., Haidt, J., Koleva, S., Motyl, M., Iyer, R., Wojcik, S. P., & Ditto, P. H. (2013). Moral foundations theory: The pragmatic validity of moral pluralism. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 55–130. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-407236-7.00002-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 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. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.09.007

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Graham, J., Nosek, B. A., Haidt, J., Iyer, R., Koleva, S., & Ditto, P. H. (2011). Mapping the moral domain. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 366–385. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021847

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gray, K., & Keeney, J. E. (2015). Impure or just weird? Scenario sampling bias raises questions about the foundation of morality. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6, 859–868. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550615592241

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greene, J. D. (2015). The cognitive neuroscience of moral judgment and decision making. In J. Decety, & T. Wheatley (Eds.), The moral brain: A multidisciplinary perspective (pp. 197–220). Cambridge, MA: Boston Review

    Google Scholar 

  • Greene, J. D., Nystrom, L. E., Engell, A. D., Darley, J. M., & Cohen, J. D. (2004). The neural bases of cognitive conflict and control in moral judgment. Neuron, 44, 389–400. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2004.09.027

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Greene, J. D., Sommerville, R. B., Nystrom, L. E., Darley, J. M., & Cohen, J. D. (2001). An fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral judgment. Science, 293, 2105–2108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guerra, V. M., & Giner-Sorolla, R. (2010). The community, autonomy, and divinity scale (CADS): A new tool for the cross-cultural study of morality. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 41, 35–50. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022109348919

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gutchess, A. H., Welsh, R. C., & Boduroglu, A. (2006). Cultural differences in neural function associated with object processing. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 6, 102–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108, 814–834. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.108.4.814

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haidt, J. (2012). The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. Pantheon/ Random House

  • Haidt, J., & Graham, J. (2007). When morality opposes justice: Conservatives have moral intuitions that liberals may not recognize. Social Justice Research, 20, 98–116. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-007-0034-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haidt, J., & Hersh, M. A. (2001). Sexual morality: The cultures and emotions of conservatives and liberals. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 31, 191–221. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2001.tb02489.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haidt, J., & Joseph, C. (2004). Intuitive ethics: How innately prepared intuitions generate culturally variable virtues. Daedalus, 133(4), 55–66. doi:https://doi.org/10.1162/0011526042365555

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haidt, J., Koller, S. H., & Dias, M. G. (1993). Affect, culture, and morality, or is it wrong to eat your dog? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 613–628. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.65.4.613

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haidt, J., Bjorklund, F., & Murphy, S. (2000). Moral dumbfounding: When intuition finds no reason (pp. 191–221). Unpublished manuscript, University of Virginia

  • Han, S., & Ma, Y. (2014). Cultural differences in human brain activity: a quantitative meta-analysis. Neuroimage, 99, 293–300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Han, S., & Northoff, G. (2008). Culture-sensitive neural substrates of human cognition: A transcultural neuroimaging approach. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9, 646–654

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hashimoto, H. (2011). Interdependence as a self-sustaining set of beliefs. Japanese Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 50, 182–193. doi: https://doi.org/10.2130/jjesp.50.182

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haslam, N. (2004). Relational models theory: A contemporary overview. East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press.

  • Haslam, N., & Fiske, A. P. (1999). Relational models theory: A confirmatory factor analysis. Personal Relationships, 6, 241–250. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6811.1999.tb00190.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heath, J. (2008). Following the rules: Practical reasoning and deontic constraint. New York: Oxford University Press

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hechler, S., & Kessler, T. (2018). On the difference between moral outrage and empathic anger: Anger about wrongful deeds or harmful consequences. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 76, 270–282. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2018.03.005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heine, S. J. (2010). Cultural psychology. In S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (pp. 1423–1464). doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470561119.socpsy002037

  • Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). Most people are not WEIRD. Nature, 466(7302), 29. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/466029a

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hofmann, W., Meindl, P., Mooijman, M., & Graham, J. (2018). Morality and self-control: How they are intertwined and where they differ. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27, 286–291. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418759317

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holloway, M. (2003, September). The mutable brain. Scientific American, pp. 79-85

  • Honda, S., Ishimaru, S., Utsunomiya, S., Yamane, T., Oda, M., Sakamoto, K., Kidera, A., et al. (2017). Considering the relation between the Haidt’s moral foundations theory and Japanese morality through developing a new scale. Bulletin of the Faculty of Education, Yamaguchi University, 66, 95–106

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, J. D. (1992). Culture wars: The struggle to control the family, art, education, law, and politics in America. New York: Basic Books

    Google Scholar 

  • Ishii, K., Miyamoto, Y., Rule, N. O., & Toriyama, R. (2014). Physical objects as vehicles of cultural transmission: Maintaining harmony and uniqueness through colored geometric patterns. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40, 175–188. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213508151

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Janoff-Bulman, R. & Carnes, N. C. (2013). Surveying the moral landscape: Moral motives and group-based moralities. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 17, 219–236. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868313480274

  • Janoff-Bulman, R., Sheikh, S., & Baldacci, K. G. (2008). Mapping moral motives: Approach, avoidance, and political orientation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1091–1099. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2007.11.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, L. A. (1995). Habits of the heart revisited: Autonomy, community, and divinity in adults’ moral language. Qualitative Sociology, 18, 71–86. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02393196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, L. A. (1997). Culture wars: American moral divisions across the adult lifespan. Journal of Adult Development, 4, 107–121. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02510084

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ji, L. J., Peng, K., & Nisbett, R. E. (2000). Culture, control, and perception of relationships in the environment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 943–955. doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/--22-3514.78.5.943

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, A. M., & Axinn, S. (2013). The morality of autonomous robots. Journal of Military Ethics, 12, 129–141.

  • Jones, D. (2010). A weird view of human nature skews psychologists’ studies. Science, 328, 1627. doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.328.5986.1627

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Joseph, C., & Haidt, J. (2007). The moral mind: How 5 sets of innate moral intuitions guide the development of many culture-specific virtues, and perhaps even modules. In P. Carruthers, S. Laurence, & S. Stich (Eds.), The Innate Mind (3 vol., pp. 367–392). Oxford: Oxford University, Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Karande, K., Shankarmahesh, M. N., Rao, C., & Rashid, Z. M. (2000). Perceived moral intensity, ethical perception, and ethical intention of American and Malaysian managers: A comparative study. International Business Review, 9, 37–59. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0969-5931(99)00028-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kashima, Y., Yamaguchi, S., Kim, U., Choi, S. C., Gelfand, M. J., & Yuki, M. (1995). Culture, gender, and self: A perspective from individualism-collectivism research. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 925–937. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.69.5.925

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, H., & Markus, H. R. (1999). Deviance or uniqueness, harmony or conformity? a cultural analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 785–800. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.4.785

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, K. R., Kang, J. S., & Yun, S. (2012). Moral intuitions and political orientation: Similarities and differences between South Korea and the United States. Psychological Reports, 111, 173–185. doi:https://doi.org/10.2466/17.09.21.pr0.111.4.173-185

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, U. (2000). Indigenous, cultural, and cross-cultural psychology: A theoretical, conceptual, and epistemological analysis. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 3, 265–287. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-839X.00068

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kitayama, S., & Karasawa, M. (1995). Self: A cultural psychological perspective. The Japanese Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 133–163. doi:https://doi.org/10.2130/jjesp.35.133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kitayama, S., Markus, H. R., Matsumoto, H., & Norasakkunkit, V. (1997). Individual and collective processes in the construction of the self: Self-enhancement in the United States and self-criticism in japan. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1245–1267. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.6.1245

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kitayama, S., & Park, J. (2010). Cultural neuroscience of the self: Understanding the social grounding of the brain. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 5, 111–129

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kitayama, S., Park, H., Sevincer, A. T., Karasawa, M., & Uskul, A. K. (2009). A cultural task analysis of implicit independence: Comparing North America, Western Europe, and East Asia. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 236–255. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015999

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kitayama, S., Varnum, M. E., & Salvador, C. E. (2019). Cultural neuroscience. In Dov Cohen, and Shinobu Kitayama (Eds.), Handbook of Cultural Psychology (pp. 79–118). New York: Guilford Publications

  • Knabb, J. J., Welsh, R. K., Ziebell, J. G., & Reimer, K. S. (2009). Neuroscience, moral reasoning, and the law. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 27, 219–236

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohlberg, L. (1981). Essays on moral development Vol. 1, The philosophy of moral development: Moral stages and the idea of justice. San Francisco: Haper & Row

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohlberg, L., Levine, C., & Hewer, A. (1983). The current formulation of the theory. In C. Kohlberg, A. Levine, Hewer, & L. Nicci (Eds.), Moral stages: A current formation and a response to critics (pp. 5–103). Basel: Karger Publishers

    Google Scholar 

  • Koleva, S., Graham, J., Haidt, J., Iyer, R., & Ditto, P. (2009). The ties that bind: How five moral concerns organize and explain political attitudes. Political Psychology

  • Kupfer, T. R., & Giner-Sorolla, R. (2017). Communicating moral motives: The social signaling function of disgust. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8, 632–640. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550616679236

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laham, S. M. (2009). Expanding the moral circle: Inclusion and exclusion mindsets and the circle of moral regard. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 250–253. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.08.012

  • Laham, S. M., Chopra, S., Lalljee, M., & Parkinson, B. (2010). Emotional and behavioural reactions to moral transgressions: Cross-cultural and individual variations in India and Britain. International Journal of Psychology, 45, 64–71. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/00207590902913434

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Landmann, H. & Hess, U. (2018). Testing moral foundation theory: Are specific moral emotions elicited by specific moral transgressions? Journal of Moral Education, 47, 34–47. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240.2017.1350569

  • Lukianoff, G., & Haidt, J. (2015, September). The coddling of the American mind. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/thecoddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

  • Lehman, D. R., Chiu, C. Y., & Schaller, M. (2004). Psychology and culture. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 689–714. doi:https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141927

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, G. J., Kanai, R., Bates, T. C., & Rees, G. (2012). Moral values are associated with individual differences in regional brain volume. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 24, 1657–1663. doi:https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00239

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, P., Rigoulot, S., & Pell, M. D. (2015). Culture modulates the brain response to human expressions of emotion: Electrophysiological evidence. Neuropsychologia, 67, 1–13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224–253. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Masuda, T., & Nisbett, R. E. (2001). Attending holistically versus analytically: Comparing the context sensitivity of Japanese and Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 922–934. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.81.5.922

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Masuda, T., & Nisbett, R. E. (2006). Culture and change blindness. Cognitive Science, 30, 381–399. doi:https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog0000_63

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Masuda, T., Akase, M., Radford, M., & Wang, H. (2008). Effect of contextual factors on patterns of eye-movement: Comparing sensitivity to background information between Japanese and westerners. The Japanese Journal of Psychology, 79, 35–43. doi:https://doi.org/10.4992/jjpsy.79.35

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Matsuo, A., Brown, C. M., Norasakkunkit, V., & Karasawa, M. (2019). How can I become a member of my culture?: Shared representations of community-related moral violation in Japan and the US. Culture and Brain, 1–20. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40167-019-00084-z

  • McNamara, R. A., Willard, A. K., Norenzayan, A., & Henrich, J. (2019). Weighing outcome vs. intent across societies: How cultural models of mind shape moral reasoning. Cognition, 182, 95–108. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.09.008

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meindl, P., & Graham, J. (2014). Know thy participant: The trouble with nomothetic assumptions in moral psychology. In H. Sarkissian, & J. C. Wright (Eds.), Advances in Experimental Moral Psychology (pp. 233–252). London: Bloomsburry

    Google Scholar 

  • Métayer, S., & Pahlavan, F. (2014). Validation of the moral foundations questionnaire in French. Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale, 27, 79–107. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/t60220-000

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. G., & Bersoff, D. M. (1992). Culture and moral judgment: How are conflicts between justice and interpersonal responsibilities resolved? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 541–554. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.62.4.541

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miyamoto, Y., Nisbett, R. E., & Masuda, T. (2006). Culture and the physical environment: Holistic versus analytic perceptual affordances. Psychological Science, 17, 113–119. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01673.x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moll, J., & de Oliveira-Souza, R. (2007). Moral judgments, emotions and the utilitarian brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11, 319–321

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moll, J., de Oliveira-Souza, R., & Eslinger, P. J. (2003). Morals and the human brain: a working model. Neuroreport, 14, 299–305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Molho, C., Tybur, J. M., Güler, E., Balliet, D., & Hofmann, W. (2017). Disgust and anger relate to different aggressive responses to moral violations. Psychological Science, 28, 609–619. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617692000

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mori, Y., Noguchi, Y., Tanaka, A., & Ishii, K. (2021). Neural responses to facial and vocal displays of emotion in Japanese people. Culture and Brain, 1–13

  • Morrison, K. R., & Matthes, J. (2011). Socially motivated projection: Need to belong increases perceived opinion consensus on important issues. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 707–719. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.797

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murayama, A., & Miura, A. (2017, September). Validation of the Japanese version of Moral Foundations Questionnaire. Oral presentation at The Japanese Group Dynamics Association Annual Conference, University of Tokyo, Japan

  • Murayama, A., & Miura, A. (2019). Validation of the Japanese version of the moral foundation questionnaire: Investigating the relationship with ideologies. The Japanese Journal of Psychology, 90, 156–166. doi:https://doi.org/10.4992/jjpsy.90.17234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nilsson, A., & Erlandsson, A. (2015). The moral foundations taxonomy: Structural validity and relation to political ideology in Sweden. Personality and Individual Differences, 76, 28–32. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.11.049

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nisbett, R. E., Peng, K., Choi, I., & Norenzayan, A. (2001). Culture and systems of thought: Holistic versus analytic cognition. Psychological Review, 108, 291–310. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.108.2.291

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Norenzayan, A., Choi, I., & Peng, K. (2007). Perception and cognition. In S. Kitayama, & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of cultural psychology (pp. 569–594). New York: Guilford Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Ohtsubo, Y., & Konishi, N. (2015). Strong reciprocity and group norm enforcement: A review of recent empirical evidence for/against the existence of moral outrage and third-party punishment. Japanese Journal of Research on Emotions, 22, 141–146. doi:https://doi.org/10.4092/jsre.22.141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pagliaro, S., Ellemers, N., & Barreto, M. (2011). Sharing moral values: Anticipated ingroup respect as a determinant of adherence to morality-based (but not competence-based) group norms. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 1117–1129. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167211406906

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Parkinson, C., Sinnott-Armstrong, W., Koralus, P. E., Mendelovici, A., McGeer, V., & Wheatley, T. (2011). Is morality unified? Evidence that distinct neural systems underlie moral judgments of harm, dishonesty, and disgust. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23, 3162–3180. doi:https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00017

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piazza, J., Sousa, P., Rottman, J., & Syropoulos, S. (2018). Which appraisals are foundational to moral judgment? Harm, injustice, and beyond. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 10, 1–11. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550618801326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rai, T. S., & Fiske, A. P. (2011). Moral psychology is relationship regulation: moral motives for unity, hierarchy, equality, and proportionality. Psychological review, 118, 57.

  • Rozin, P., Lowery, L., Imada, S., & Haidt, J. (1999). The CAD triad hypothesis: A mapping between three moral emotions (contempt, anger, disgust) and three moral codes (community, autonomy, divinity). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 574–586. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.4.574

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Saucier, G. (2018). Culture, morality and individual differences: Comparability and incomparability across species. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1744), 1–9. doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0170

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shweder, R. A. (1999). Why cultural psychology?: What is it?. In R. A. Shweder (Ed.), Thinking through cultures: Expeditions in cultural psychology (pp. 73–110). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Shweder, R. A., & Haidt, J. (1993). The future of moral psychology: Truth, intuition, and the pluralist way. Psychological Science, 4, 360–365. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1993.tb00582.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shweder, R. A., & Sullivan, M. A. (1993). Cultural psychology: Who needs it? Annual Review of Psychology, 44, 497–523. doi:https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ps.44.020193.002433

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shweder, R., Much, N., Mahapatra, M., & Park, L. (1997). Divinity and the “big three” explanations of suffering. In A. M. Brandt, & P. Rozin (Eds.), Morality and health (pp. 119–169). London: Routledge

    Google Scholar 

  • Snarey, J., & Keljo, K. (1991). In a gemeinschaft voice: The cross-cultural expansion of moral development theory. In W. M. Kurtines, J. Gewirtz, & J. L. Lamb (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development Vol. 1, Theory (pp. 395–424). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum

    Google Scholar 

  • Sverdlik, N., Roccas, S., & Sagiv, L. (2012). Morality across cultures: A value perspective. In M. Mikulincer, & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), The Social Psychology of Morality: Exploring the Causes of Good and Evil (pp. 219–236). Washington, D. C.: American Psychological Asociation

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Takagi, A. & Murata, K. (2005). Social annoyance as a discrepancy in normative focus. Japanese Journal of Social Psychology, 20, 216–223. doi:https://doi.org/10.14966/jssp.KJ00003725004

  • Uchida, Y., Takemura, K., Fukushima, S., Saizen, I., Kawamura, Y., Hitokoto, H. … Yoshikawa, S. (2019). Farming cultivates a community-level shared culture through collective activities: Examining contextual effects with multilevel analyses. Journal of personality and social psychology, 116, 1–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vasquez, K., Keltner, D., Ebenbach, D. H., & Banaszynski, T. L. (2001). Cultural variation and similarity in moral rhetorics: Voices from the Philippines and the united states. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32, 93–120. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022101032001010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vauclair, C. M., & Fischer, R. (2011). Do cultural values predict individuals’ moral attitudes? A cross-cultural multilevel approach. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 645–657. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.794

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vauclair, C.-M., Fischer, R., Ferreira, M. C., Guerra, V., Hößler, U., Karabati, S., ..., Rytkönen, J., et al. (2015). What kinds of value motives guide people in their moral attitudes? The role of personal and prescriptive values at the culture level and individual level. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 46, 211–228. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022114557487

  • Yilmaz, O., Harma, M., Bahçekapili, H. G., & Cesur, S. (2016). Validation of the moral foundations questionnaire in turkey and its relation to cultural schemas of individualism and collectivism. Personality and Individual Differences, 99, 149–154. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.04.090

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yoder, K. J., & Decety, J. (2018). The neuroscience of morality and social decision-making. Psychology, Crime & Law, 24, 279–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallach, W., Allen, C., & Smit, I. (2008). Machine morality: Bottom-up and top-down approaches for modelling human moral faculties. AI & Society, 22, 565–582. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-007-0099-0

  • Young, L., & Saxe, R. (2008). The neural basis of belief encoding and integration in moral judgment. Neuroimage, 40, 1912–1920

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu, Y., Zhang, L., Fan, J., & Han, S. (2007). Neural basis of cultural influence on self-representation. Neuroimage, 34, 1310–1316

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The first author thanks Dr. Minoru Karasawa for his supervision when the first author attended Nagoya University.

Funding

The present work received no grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Tokai Gakuen University, 2- 901 Nakahira, 468-8514, Tempaku, Nagoya, Japan

    Akiko MATSUO

  2. Department of Psychology, Arcadia University, Glenside, United States

    Christina M. BROWN

Authors
  1. Akiko MATSUO
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christina M. BROWN
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Akiko MATSUO.

Ethics declarations

Statements and Declarations

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

MATSUO, A., BROWN, C.M. Culture points the moral compass: Shared basis of culture and morality. Cult. Brain 10, 113–139 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40167-022-00106-3

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40167-022-00106-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation