Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T10:24:34.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Moral rigidity as a proximate facilitator of group cohesion and combativeness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2019

Antoine Marie*
Affiliation:
Institut Jean Nicod, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France. antoine.marie.sci@gmail.comhttps://antoinemariesci.wixsite.com/antoinemarie

Abstract

De Dreu and Gross's description of the proximate mechanisms conditioning success in intergroup conflict omits humans' deontological morality. Drawing on research on sacralization and moral objectivism, I show how “moral rigidity” may have evolved through partner selection mechanisms to foster coalitions’ cohesion and combativeness in intergroup conflict.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Owing to a printer's error, the first paragraph of this commentary was set as part of the abstract. This has been corrected here and an erratum has been published.

References

Aktipis, A., Cronk, L., Alcock, J., Ayers, J. D., Baciu, C., Balliet, D., Boddy, A. M., Curry, O. S., Krems, J. A., Muñoz, A., Sullivan, D., Sznycer, D., Wilkinson, G. S. & Winfrey, P. (2018) Understanding cooperation through fitness interdependence. Nature Human Behaviour 2(7):429–31. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0378-4.Google Scholar
Alexander, R. (1987) The biology of moral systems (foundations of human behavior). Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Atran, S. (2010) Talking to the enemy: Violent extremism, sacred values, and what it means to be human. Penguin.Google Scholar
Atran, S. (2016) The devoted actor. Unconditional commitment and intractable conflict across cultures. Current Anthropology 57(Suppl. 13):S192S203.Google Scholar
Barclay, P. & Willer, R. (2007) Partner choice creates competitive altruism in humans. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 274(1610):749–53.Google Scholar
Baron, J. & Spranca, M. (1997) Protected values. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 70:116.Google Scholar
Baumard, N., André, J.-B. & Sperber, D. (2013) A mutualistic theory of morality: The evolution of fairness by partner choice. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 36:59122.Google Scholar
Beebe, J., Qiaoan, R., Endara, M. A. & Wysocki, T. (2015) Moral objectivism in cross-cultural perspective. Journal of Cognition and Culture 15(3/4):386401. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685373-12342157.Google Scholar
Everett, J. A., Pizarro, D. A. & Crockett, M. J. (2016) Inference of trustworthiness from intuitive moral judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 145(6):772787.Google Scholar
Frank, R. (1988) Passions within reason: The strategic role of the emotions, vol. 1. Norton.Google Scholar
Frimer, J., Motyl, M. & Tell, C. (2017) Sacralizing liberals and fair-minded conservatives: Ideological symmetry in the moral motives in the culture war. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy 17(1):3359.Google Scholar
Gómez, Á., López-Rodríguez, L., Sheikh, H., Ginges, J., Wilson, L., Waziri, H., Vázquez, A., Davis, R. & Atran, S. (2017) The devoted actor's will to fight and the spiritual dimension of human conflict. Nature Human Behaviour 1(9):673–79. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0193-3.Google Scholar
Goodwin, G. P. & Darley, J. M. (2010) The perceived objectivity of ethical beliefs: Psychological findings and implications for public policy. Review of Philosophy and Psychology 1(2):161–88. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-009-0013-4.Google Scholar
Goodwin, G. P. & Darley, J. M. (2012) Why are some moral beliefs perceived to be more objective than others? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 48(1):250–56. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.08.006.Google Scholar
Haidt, J. (2012) The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. Pantheon/Random House.Google Scholar
Haselton, M. G., Nettle, D. & Andrews, P. W. (2015) The evolution of cognitive bias. In: The handbook of evolutionary psychology, ed. Buss, D. M., pp. 724–46. Wiley. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470939376.ch25.Google Scholar
LeBlanc, S.A. & Register, K. (2003) Constant battles: The myth of the peaceful, noble savage. St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Marie, A. & Fitouchi, L. (in preparation) The evolution of moral rigidity.Google Scholar
Nichols, S. & Folds-Bennett, T. (2003) Are children moral objectivists? Children's judgments about moral and response-dependent properties. Cognition 90(2):B23B32. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0010-0277(03)00160-4.Google Scholar
Quine, W. V. (1948) On what there is. The Review of Metaphysics 2(1):2138.Google Scholar
Stanford, K. (2018) The difference between ice cream and Nazis: Moral externalization and the evolution of human cooperation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 41:e95.Google Scholar
Tetlock, P. E., Kristel, O. V., Elson, B., Green, M. & Lerner, J. (2000) The psychology of the unthinkable: Taboo trade-offs, forbidden base rates, and heretical counterfactuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 78:853–70.Google Scholar
Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2010) Groups in mind: The coalitional roots of war and morality. In: Human morality and sociality: Evolutionary and comparative perspectives, ed. Høgh-Olesen, H., pp. 191234. Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Trivers, R. L. (1971) The evolution of reciprocal altruism. Quarterly Review of Biology 46:3557.Google Scholar
Wainryb, C., Shaw, L., Langley, M., Cottam, K. & Lewis, R. (2004) Children’s thinking about diversity of belief in the early school years: Judgments of relativism, tolerance, and disagreeing persons. Child Development 75(3):687703.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. (2018) Dying for the group: Towards a general theory of extreme self-sacrifice. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 41:e192. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X18000249.Google Scholar
Graham, J., Haidt, J., Koleva, S. P., 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 47:55130.Google Scholar
Piazza, J. & Sousa, P. (2013) Religiosity, political orientation, and consequentialist moral yhinking. Social Psychological and Personality Science 5(3):334–42.Google Scholar
Tetlock, P. E. (2003) Thinking the unthinkable: Sacred values and taboo cognitions. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7:320–24.Google Scholar