All societies are held together by seven universal moral rules, which include deferring to superiors and respecting the property of others, Oxford University has concluded. Although many cultures are moving towards more liberal, less hierarchical organizations, the new research suggests that traditional power structures and basic values of charity and brotherhood are the cornerstones of successful societies.
The huge study of 60 different cultures around the world found that all communities operate under seven basic moral codes. Those universal rules are: help your family, help your group, return favors, be brave, defer to superiors, divide resources fairly, and respect the property of others. The character traits held for every kind of community, be they traditional hunter gatherers or advanced civilizations, helping to uphold civilized society and foster social cooperation, researchers found. "Everyone everywhere shares a common moral code," said Dr. Oliver Scott Curry, lead author and senior researcher at Oxford. "These seven moral rules appear to be universal across cultures, because people face the same social problems. Even if some of these traits look right-wing or conservative, for example, deferring to authority, left-wing people will still have a group loyalty and deference to someone or something. This shows there really is more that unites us than divides us."
The study published in Current Anthropology is the largest and most comprehensive and widespread survey of morals ever conducted and aimed to find out whether different societies had different versions of morality. The team accessed the world's best archives to analyze accounts from more than 600 sources of 60 societies around the world. They found that the seven rules were considered morally good in all societies and were observed across all continents, religions and politics. However, some communities valued certain rules more highly than others. Dr. Curry hopes that this research helps to promote mutual understanding between people of different cultures and appreciation of what we have in common and how and why we differ. Co-author professor Harvey Whitehouse said social scientists should now set about testing the theory in the field, rather than relying on old data. "This study was based on historical descriptions of cultures around the world," he said. "These descriptions were made independent of and prior to the theory we're testing. In future, if social scientists are serious about testing theories of morality, they will need to gather new data, more systematically, out in the field."