In yet another confounding of the same sitatuion we see played out over and over in thousands of published studies, Seed gives us a report on how moral decisions are contextual.
“No, the results did not surprise us,” says Lindenberg. “What surprised us was the size of the effect.”
This is not unlike the findings from last week’s feature on social conformity we found on CNN. What’s different is the more sound conclusions from these researchers.
It’s not that good people turned bad, either. One goal simply surpassed another in importance. In the case of the mailbox, the desire for cash superceded the desire to behave appropriately, because others already hadn’t. “People are not bad. People are just subject to social influence,” Lindenberg says. An effective tip for crime prevention is to be aware of norm violations on all fronts. After all, says Lindenberg, “Even old grandmothers would do this.”
Values are contingent and contextual. Ain’t no good and evil, bad and good. Only situations and consequences.
In deference to Oakum’s Razor, a more parsimonious conclusion might involve something along that which happens when someone watches someone else eat, when a parent opens their mouth while spoon feeding a baby or when a person at another table watches another person efficiently open a lobster tail. There is learning by mimicry going on.
Whether there is some analogous mirror neurons operating prior to the doing the act themselves is an interesting question to speculate about.
The problems with any of this is that what is as stated: There is no absolute set of good, bad, moral, immoral, evil, or any other ‘essence’ involved. All those and thousands like them are labels for communication of inaccurately observed contingencies between an organism and that organism’s environment. Following the consequences to determine what is operating in a relationship works to assess if and what kind of relationship exists in that context.
It may not be as exciting or as creative but it gives a better picture of what the heck is going on.
Nice cuts…