The Difficulty of Studying Morality Across Cultures

This chapter details ideas in psychology and sociology that focus on individuals and groups, the locus of the majority of morality research. Durkheim wrote about social structure as an influence on morality, but outside of a handful of anthropological theoretical pieces and some sociological ideas, there is a paucity of recent theory (much less empirical work) on links between social structure and culture as they inform moral codes and functioning. More commonly, different cultures are treated as if they a priori developed differently, even though there is evidence to suggest that structural features such as economic growth shape moral imperatives. We provide an overview of these ideas but offer a wider, more critical assessment of the various theories to more thoroughly link individual moral experience with broader social structure.