Skip to main content
Home
  • Connect!
  • Donate
  • My Account
  • Join/Login
  • S
  • About
    • What is Social and Personality Psychology?
    • Leadership
      • Elections
    • Get Involved
    • Committees
    • Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives
    • Government Relations
    • Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology
    • Governance Documents
    • Staff
    • Jobs at SPSP
      • Benefits of Working at SPSP
      • Current Openings
  • Connect!
  • Join/Login
  • Home
  • Members
    • Membership Categories and Rates
    • Member Demographics
    • Member Directory
    • APA Division 8
    • Fellowship
    • Listservs and Shared Interest Groups
    • Member Deals and Discounts
  • Publications
    • Best Practices
    • Publication Policies
    • Resources
    • PSPB
      • Editorial Philosophy
      • Manuscript Preparation/Submission Guidelines
      • PSPB Online
    • PSPR
      • Manuscript Preparation
      • PSPR Online
    • SPPS
      • Manuscript Preparation
      • SPPS Online
  • Events
    • 2022 Convention
    • Future/Past Conventions
    • Summer Psychology Forum
    • Society of Southeastern Social Psychologists
    • APA Convention (Division 8)
    • Student Opportunities
      • SISPP
      • SPUR
      • SASP
      • EASP
      • EAPP
    • Online Learning
  • Giving
    • Ways to Give
    • Planned Giving
    • Tribute Wall
    • Annual Reports
    • ARP Awards
  • Awards/Grants
    • Annual Awards
      • Senior Career Contribution Awards
      • Mid-Career Awards
      • Early Career Awards
      • Teaching and Mentoring Awards
      • Prizes for a Single Outstanding Contribution
      • Media Awards
      • Service Awards
      • Student Awards
      • Diversity Awards
    • Student Awards
      • Heritage Dissertation Research Award
      • Outstanding Research Award
      • Graduate Student Poster Award
      • Undergraduate Student Poster Award
      • Student Publication Prize
      • Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award
      • Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
    • Diversity Awards
      • Jenessa Shapiro Award for Contributions to Diversity and Inclusion
      • Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award
      • Diversity Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
    • Legacy Program
    • Registration Awards
      • Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
      • Teacher/Scholar Registration Award
      • International Registration Award
      • International Bridge-Building Award
    • Small Research Grant Program
    • Small Conference Grant Program
    • Community Catalyst Grant Program
  • News
    • Member Newsletter
    • Student Newsletter
    • Character and Context Blog
    • Press Releases
    • Member Updates
  • Resources
    • Connect!
    • COVID-19
    • Free-Form Fridays
    • Students
      • Graduate Program Directory
      • Applying to Grad School
      • Life in Graduate School
    • Early Career
    • Primarily Undergraduate Institutions
    • Multimedia
      • #SPSPchat
      • SPSP Experts
      • Out of the Lab
      • Convention Videos
    • Funding
    • International Study and Work
    • Statistics & Data Analysis
    • Teaching
      • Recommended Textbooks
      • Syllabi Examples
      • Teaching Aids
      • Video
    • Applied Psychology
  • Careers
    • Find/Post a Job
    • Graduation Outcomes
    • Career Resources
    • Academic Job Market
    • Non-Academic Internships
    • Undergraduate Research
  • About
    • What is Social and Personality Psychology?
    • Leadership
      • Elections
    • Get Involved
    • Committees
    • Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives
    • Government Relations
    • Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology
    • Governance Documents
    • Staff
    • Jobs at SPSP
      • Benefits of Working at SPSP
      • Current Openings
  • Connect!
  • Join/Login
  • Home
  • Members
    • Membership Categories and Rates
    • Member Demographics
    • Member Directory
    • APA Division 8
    • Fellowship
    • Listservs and Shared Interest Groups
    • Member Deals and Discounts
  • Publications
    • Best Practices
    • Publication Policies
    • Resources
    • PSPB
      • Editorial Philosophy
      • Manuscript Preparation/Submission Guidelines
      • PSPB Online
    • PSPR
      • Manuscript Preparation
      • PSPR Online
    • SPPS
      • Manuscript Preparation
      • SPPS Online
  • Events
    • 2022 Convention
    • Future/Past Conventions
    • Summer Psychology Forum
    • Society of Southeastern Social Psychologists
    • APA Convention (Division 8)
    • Student Opportunities
      • SISPP
      • SPUR
      • SASP
      • EASP
      • EAPP
    • Online Learning
  • Giving
    • Ways to Give
    • Planned Giving
    • Tribute Wall
    • Annual Reports
    • ARP Awards
  • Awards/Grants
    • Annual Awards
      • Senior Career Contribution Awards
      • Mid-Career Awards
      • Early Career Awards
      • Teaching and Mentoring Awards
      • Prizes for a Single Outstanding Contribution
      • Media Awards
      • Service Awards
      • Student Awards
      • Diversity Awards
    • Student Awards
      • Heritage Dissertation Research Award
      • Outstanding Research Award
      • Graduate Student Poster Award
      • Undergraduate Student Poster Award
      • Student Publication Prize
      • Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award
      • Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
    • Diversity Awards
      • Jenessa Shapiro Award for Contributions to Diversity and Inclusion
      • Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award
      • Diversity Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
    • Legacy Program
    • Registration Awards
      • Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
      • Teacher/Scholar Registration Award
      • International Registration Award
      • International Bridge-Building Award
    • Small Research Grant Program
    • Small Conference Grant Program
    • Community Catalyst Grant Program
  • News
    • Member Newsletter
    • Student Newsletter
    • Character and Context Blog
    • Press Releases
    • Member Updates
  • Resources
    • Connect!
    • COVID-19
    • Free-Form Fridays
    • Students
      • Graduate Program Directory
      • Applying to Grad School
      • Life in Graduate School
    • Early Career
    • Primarily Undergraduate Institutions
    • Multimedia
      • #SPSPchat
      • SPSP Experts
      • Out of the Lab
      • Convention Videos
    • Funding
    • International Study and Work
    • Statistics & Data Analysis
    • Teaching
      • Recommended Textbooks
      • Syllabi Examples
      • Teaching Aids
      • Video
    • Applied Psychology
  • Careers
    • Find/Post a Job
    • Graduation Outcomes
    • Career Resources
    • Academic Job Market
    • Non-Academic Internships
    • Undergraduate Research

You are here

Home » News » Press Releases

Hunter-gatherers Agree on What is Moral, but not Who is Moral

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Morality plays a role in everyday lives, from interactions with friends and strangers, to political views and social influences. Social psychologists from the University of Pennsylvania wanted to know whether there was a universal concept of moral character, by looking beyond Western populations. According to their work with the Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, the Hadza agree on which traits are relevant to moral character, but not on who has character.

The research appears in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Interviewing Hadza hunter-gatherers to rank the people they live with on a number of traits, such as who has a good heart, who shares the most, and who works the hardest, the team found that Hadza agreed on how important generosity and hard work was to moral character, but disagreed on who most exemplified these traits.

“They disagreed on who among them had the most moral character,” says Kristopher Smith, a Penn postdoctoral fellow and lead paper author.

Smith and Coren Apicella, an associate professor of Psychology, had 94 judges rank their campmates on global character and relevant character traits for a total of 824 observations.

The Hadza live in small nomadic groups and move from group to group so that the social structure of each group frequently changes.

Scientists suspect this nomadic way of living gives insight into the origins of human cooperation. Although the researchers note that the Hadza are a modern people, living in modern times, their way of living is more similar to how human ancestors lived than in western societies.

“It’s not that the Hadza do not have a concept of morality or don’t care about it. They agreed on what traits contributed to moral character. But they cannot agree on who exemplifies it,” says Smith.

Previous work by Apicella and Smith looking at generosity found that this trait changed depending on the group dynamic. A generous group led members to be more generous, and a group that didn’t share much led to others not sharing as well.

It may be this mobility and changing group dynamics that drive their current findings as well, as Apicella notes that “the changing of groups and behavior may make it difficult for individuals to track and agree on moral reputations.”

From the 1,000-foot morality perspective, “this suggests that, for the Hadza, there is little consistent moral behavior across situations, and that reputation may have played a smaller role in the evolution of morality,” says Smith.

“Understanding how moral psychology differs across cultures and in different social systems may provide insight into ways to improve our interactions with one another, and maybe overcome moral disagreements in our society,” summarizes Smith.


This research was supported by the Templeton Religion Trust and the Moral Beacons Project.

Study:  Smith, Kristopher and Apicella, Coren. Hadza hunter-gatherers disagree on perceptions of moral character (2019) Social Psychological and Personality Science. Online before print September 5, 2019.

Social Psychological and Personality Science (SPPS) is an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), the Association for Research in Personality (ARP), the European Association of Social Psychology (EASP), and the Society for Experimental Social Psychology (SESP). Social Psychological and Personality Science publishes innovative and rigorous short reports of empirical research on the latest advances in personality and social psychology.

 

Tags: 
Hadza
hunter-gatherers
cross-cultural
moral character
person perception
Reputation
Sidebar: Press Contact
Read Our Blog
Find Us on Social Media

Media Contact:

Annie Drinkard
Public and Media Relations Manager
press@spsp.org
Phone: (202) 869-3243

Character & Context Blog

How do we see social and personality psychology in our world? Read our blog.

Image of the Character & Context Blog logo

Find Us on Social Media

Facebook logo   Twitter logo  Youtube logo   LinkedIn logo


Share this page
 
Society for Personality and Social Psychology
1120 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 280
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 869-3240
spspinfo@spsp.org
Facebook Icon Twitter Icon LinkedIn Icon
  • About
  • Connect!
  • Join/Login
  • Home
  • Members
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Giving
  • Awards/Grants
  • News
  • Resources
  • Careers
© 2021. Society for Personality and Social Psychology®. All rights reserved.

View our Privacy Policy here.