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The evolution of morality refers to the emergence of human moral behavior over the course of human evolution. Morality can be defined as a system of ideas about right and wrong conduct. In everyday life, morality is typically associated with human behavior and not much thought is given to the social conducts of other creatures. The emerging fields of evolutionary biology and in particular sociobiology have demonstrated that, though human social behaviors are complex, the precursors of human morality can be traced to the behaviors of many other social animals. Sociobiological explanations of human behavior are still controversial. The traditional view of social scientists has been that morality is a construct, and is thus culturally relative.

Contents 1 Animal sociality 2 Primate sociality 3 Evolution of religion 4 Sexuality and morality 5 See also 6 Further reading 7 Footnotes

Animal sociality

See also: Social animal

Though animals may not possess moral behavior, all social animals have had to modify or restrain their behaviors for group living to be worthwhile. Typical examples of behavioral modification can be found in the societies ants, bees and termites. Ant colonies may possess millions of individuals and colonies . E. O. Wilson argues that the single most important factor that leads to the success of ant colonies is the existence of a sterile worker caste. This caste of females are subservient to the needs of their mother, the queen, and in so doing, have given up their own reproduction in order to raise brothers and sisters. The existence of sterile castes among these social insects, significantly restricts the competition for mating and in the process fosters cooperation within a colony. Cooperation among ants is vital, because a solitary ant has an improbable chance of long term survival and reproduction. However as part of a group, colonies can thrive for decades. As a consequence, ants are one of the most successful species on the planet, accounting for a biomass that rivals humans.¹²

The basic reason that social animals live in groups is that opportunities for survival and reproduction are much better in groups than living alone. The social behaviors of mammals are more familiar to humans. Highly social mammals, like primates, elephants have been known to exhibit traits that were once thought to be uniquely human, like empathy and altruism.

Primate sociality

See also: Altruism in animals

Humanity’s closest living relatives are common chimpanzees and bonobos. These primates share a common ancestor with humans who lived four and six million years ago. It is for this reason that chimpanzees and bonobos are viewed as the best available surrogate for this common ancestor. Barbara King argues that while primates may not possess morality in the human sense, they do exhibit some traits that would have been necessary for the evolution of morality. These traits include high intelligence, a capacity for symbolic communication, a sense of social norms, realization of "self", and a concept of continuity. ³⁴⁵ Frans de Waal and Barbara King both view human morality as having grown out of primate sociality. Many social animals such as primates, dolphins and whales have been known to exhibit what Michael Shermer refers to as premoral sentiments. According to Shermer, the following characteristics are shared by humans and other social animals, particularly the great apes:

attachment and bonding, cooperation and mutual aid, sympathy and empathy, direct and indirect reciprocity, altruism and reciprocal altruism, conflict resolution and peacemaking, deception and deception detection, community concern and caring ahout what others think about you, and awareness of and response to the social rules of the group. ⁶

Shermer argues that these premoral sentiments evolved in primate societies as a method of restraining individual selfishness and building more cooperative groups. For any social species, the benefits of being part of an altruistic group should outweigh the benefits of individualism. For example, lack of group cohesion could make individuals more vulnerable to attack from outsiders. Being part of group may also improve the chances of finding food. This is evident among animals that hunt in packs to take down large or dangerous prey.

All social animals have hierarchical societies in which each member knows its own place. Social order is maintained by certain rules of expected behavior and dominant group members enforce order through punishment. However, higher order primates also have a sense of reciprocity. Chimpanzees remember who did them favors and who did them wrong. For example, chimpanzees are more likely to share food with individuals who have previously groomed them.⁷. Vampire bats also demonstrate a sense of reciprocity & altruism. They share blood by regurgitation, but do not share randomly. They are most likely to share with other bats have shared with them in the past, and who are in dire need of feeding as bats who haven't fed in three days risk death from starvation.⁸

Animals also display an understanding of fairness, refusing to co-operate when presented unequal rewards for the same behaviors in Capuchin monkeys⁹ as well as dogs ¹⁰.

Social evolution of humans

Period years ago	Society type	Number of individuals
6,000,000	Bands	10s
100,000-10,000	Bands	10s-100s
10,000-5000	tribes	100s-1,000s
5,000-3,000	Chiefdoms	1,000s-10,000s
3,000-1,000	States	10,000s-100,000s
1,000-Present	Empires	100,000-1,000,000s

Chimpanzees live in fission-fusion groups that average 50 individuals. It is likely that early ancestors of humans lived in groups of similar size. Based on the size of extant hunter gatherer societies, recent paleolithic hominids lived in bands of a few hundred individuals. As community size increased over the course of human evolution, greater enforcement to achieve group cohesion would have been required. Morality may have evolved in these bands of 100 to 200 people as a means of social control, conflict resolution and group solidarity. According to Dr. de Waal, human morality has two extra levels of sophistication that are not found in primate societies. Humans enforce their society’s moral codes much more rigorously with rewards, punishments and reputation building. People also apply a degree of judgment and reason, not seen in the animal kingdom.

Evolution of religion

See also: Evolutionary origin of religions

Psychologist Matt J. Rossano argues that religion emerged after morality and built upon morality by expanding the social scrutiny of individual behavior to include supernatural agents. By including ever watchful ancestors, spirits and gods in the social realm, humans discovered an effective strategy for restraining selfishness and building more cooperative groups.¹¹ The adaptive value of religion would have enhanced group survival.^{12 13}

Sexuality and morality

Human sexuality is intricately linked with notions of virtue and modesty. In particular, females tend to be under more intense social scrutiny regarding virtuous behavior. Sociobiologists believe this genderizing of morality is an evolutionary adaptation related to parental investment. Because women invest more resources into rearing children, such as a nine month gestation, it is argued that they must select a mate who is willing to participate in rearing children. Consequently, women have evolved more choosy preferences for mates than men. Women have a stronger preference for long term partners, whereas men have preferences for both long and short term partners. The theory supposes that men are more open to dropping their standards for short term partners as there is no paternal investment.In this regard, promiscuous behavior by women would be maladaptive, as they would have to raise children with no or little paternal support. In most societies, female adultery is taken much more seriously than male adultery.¹⁴

See also

• Evolutionary ethics

Further reading

• The Origins of Virtue

Footnotes

v • d • e Evolutionary psychology Psychology portal · Evolutionary biology portal Related topics Altruism · Controversy  · Developmental · Group selection · Kin selection · Memetics · Morality  · Religion · Sexual selection · Sociobiology Seminal writers Pascal Boyer  · David Buss  · Leda Cosmides  · Charles Darwin  · Richard Dawkins · Daniel Dennett  · Jared Diamond  · David Geary  · Geoffrey Miller  · Michael Shermer  · John Tooby  · Robert Trivers  · E. O. Wilson  · D.S. Wilson Lists Evolutionary psychologists

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