Culture has a significant influence on moral behavior. Moral values about what is right or wrong vary greatly between different cultures and societies. Factors like religion, political systems, economic factors, and family structures all contribute to a society’s accepted moral code. Understanding how these forces shape values provides insight into cultural diversity and moral relativism.
What is moral behavior?
Moral behavior refers to actions and conduct based on ethical principles of right and wrong. It involves adhering to social norms and rules that outline virtuous, principled behavior. Moral behavior includes:
- Honesty
- Integrity
- Compassion
- Altruism
- Justice
- Responsibility
Different cultures have diverse perspectives on what constitutes moral actions. Moral relativism is the idea that morality is relative to social, cultural, historical, or personal circumstances, rather than universally absolute principles. This means that moral standards and judgments of right and wrong are shaped by cultural contexts.
How does religion impact moral values?
Religious beliefs profoundly influence ideas of morality in most cultures. Religions define virtuous and ethical behavior in line with their belief systems and write these moral codes into religious scriptures or laws. As a central force in society, religion shapes people’s worldviews and moral compasses from a young age.
For example, Christianity and Islam advocate compassion, charity and love for one’s neighbor based on teachings in the Bible and Quran. Buddhism’s moral code calls for non-violence, kindness, honesty and selflessness. Hinduism emphasizes virtues like dharma (righteousness), ahimsa (non-violence), and karma (consequences of one’s actions).
In many nations, religiosity correlates strongly with moral attitudes on issues like abortion, homosexuality, marriage, and premarital sex. People from religious backgrounds are more likely to see these acts as morally wrong compared to non-religious groups. Religion can play a role in maintaining tradition and order through transmitting moral values over generations.
Differences in religious moral perspectives
While religions share similarities in moral themes, beliefs still differ substantially which leads to divergent perspectives on moral issues:
- Polygamy is allowed in Islam but prohibited in Christianity.
- Catholics condemn birth control and abortion whereas some Protestant denominations accept it.
- Hinduism historically sanctioned the caste system and gender inequality which Buddhism rejects.
- Certain practices like alcohol, pork, and euthanasia are deemed immoral in some faiths but permissible in others.
When societies have competing religious groups, moral beliefs can diverge drastically on social issues as religious laws come into conflict in the public sphere. Countries like India and Lebanon contain groups across the moral spectrum, making consensus on unified moral standards difficult.
The influence of political systems
A society’s form of political governance shapes accepted moral practices and norms. Different political ideologies conceptualize the constituents of moral behavior in line with their values.
Totalitarian and authoritarian regimes
Totalitarian and autocratic governments impose state ideology and propaganda with strict control over moral values. Citizens in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were expected to demonstrate unwavering loyalty to the regime and devotion to the national interest over individual rights. Moral duty entailed obeying authority and adhering to party slogans rather than universal ethics.
Liberal democracies
Liberal democracies emphasize moral values like human dignity, tolerance, pluralism, individual rights, and freedom of belief and expression. Moral views are shaped through public discourse and participation rather than imposed by the state.
Socialist societies
Socialist models link morality to equality, social responsibility and collective well-being. Moral duty involves contributing to society and supporting fellow citizens, especially the poor and vulnerable. Actions are moral if they advance common welfare.
The role of family structures and values
A society’s common family model shapes moral socialization. Children first learn about moral behavior through family relationships and interactions.
Nuclear families
Nuclear family structures with two parents and siblings promote individualism and independence. Children are socialized with moral values oriented around autonomy, exploration and self-direction.
Extended families
In extended family households with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, morals emphasize duty to family, community ties, obedience to elders and maintaining harmony. Children are socialized with greater emphasis on group solidarity.
Collectivist cultures
In collectivist cultures centered around extended families, morality is conditional rather than absolute. Actions are based on relationships where moral obligations are stronger towards family versus strangers.
Individualist cultures
Individualist societies with nuclear families judge actions by universal moral standards. Ethical principles like honesty, fairness and compassion are applied broadly and unconditionally regardless of relationships.
The influence of economic factors
A society’s economic system and level of development shape moral values and issues.
Social inequality
Inequality correlates strongly with reduced empathy and engagement in moral behavior. Higher gaps between rich and poor associate with more acceptance of fraudulent practices to get ahead. Poverty can discourage moral values like trust and honesty.
Existential threat
In impoverished conditions characterized by scarcity, instability and lack of rule of law, morality focuses on survival first. Moral objections to theft, violence and corruption diminish in urgency compared to getting food, shelter and safety.
Materialism
Materialism and consumerism in post-industrial nations encourage moral relativism and hedonism centered around money, pleasure and status. Spirituality declines while situational ethics and moral pragmatism grow.
Population density
In crowded urban environments, social isolation increases, eroding community cohesion. Anonymity and diverse social networks encourage moral flexibility over norms that maintain harmony in relationships.
How moral values are transmitted culturally
Societies pass down moral principles through:
- Stories, myths, fables
- Religious scriptures, rituals
- Rites of passage
- Community traditions
- Cultural and nationalist symbols
- Media messaging and propaganda
- Role models
- School curriculum
Humans evolved as social creatures with shared moral intuitions. But culture determines how these intuitions take form and get refined into systems of right and wrong. Internalizing the moral norms and ideals of one’s community shapes an individual’s conscience and ethical identity.
Examples of differing cultural moral perspectives
Justice and punishment
In Western cultures, justice focuses on establishing guilt and enacting retribution through proportional punishment. In Japan and China, justice emphasizes social harmony, and punishment aims for remorse and rehabilitation into the community.
Women’s rights
Views on women’s rights divide traditional cultures valuing female modesty and restricted roles from secular societies promoting full gender equality and empowerment.
Euthanasia and suicide
While most Western nations now allow euthanasia for terminally ill patients, many Asian and African cultures condemn it as immoral based on religious or social norms.
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment of children remains acceptable in parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East but is morally condemned and illegal in most Western nations.
Clothing norms
Revealing attire is taboo in conservative Muslim countries but permissible in liberal societies. Public toplessness is normal among some indigenous tribes but prohibited in most countries.
Dietary customs
Eating beef is immoral for Hindus but commonplace for most Americans. Dog meat is consumed in parts of Asia whereas Westerners keep dogs as pets and condemn eating them.
Sexuality
Premarital sex, homosexuality and gender fluidity gain acceptance in secular Western societies but remain socially taboo and punishable offenses in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Alcohol use
Alcohol is prohibited in Islam but commonly consumed as acceptable recreation across much of Europe, the Americas and Australia.
Conclusion
Culture exerts a powerful influence on moral values. Differing social structures, traditions, ideologies, and religious beliefs shape diverse cultural norms regarding ethical behavior. Exposure to alternate moral worldviews challenges cultural assumptions and reveals moral issues as complex rather than black and white. While universal moral intuitions exist, culture imbues these with substantially different meanings. Understanding cultural plurality is key for moral reasoning in an interconnected world.