When it comes to making moral decisions, we often think of the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Yet, why we make such decisions has been widely debated. Are we motivated ...

Moral and civil behavior by all, toward all, is an essential aspect of a safe and welcoming learning environment. While focused on student achievement rates and teacher performance in the service of ...

Two of my previous posts on moral development described the origins and consequences of following inner expectations and others' expectations. We form our inner expectations (conscience, or what we ...

This is the second in a two-part series from Albert Bandura, a pioneer in the field of social cognitive theory and the most cited living psychologist in the world. Read the first piece on ...

Just as optical illusions can fool the eye to present a distorted image of reality, moral illusions can fool our decision-making ability, making us more selfish. This is the conclusion of a newly ...

Researchers often use hypothetical scenarios to understand how people grapple with moral quandaries, but experimental results suggest that these scenarios may not always reflect real-life behavior.

Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience show that powerful hierarchical situations make it easier to commit harmful actions, as agency and empathy are split across multiple ...

Philosophers and ethicists have never had scientific proof that university ethics classes affect student moral behavior—until now. A research team led by a philosopher at the University of California, ...

Moral conviction refers to the sense that a particular attitude is grounded in one’s core ethical principles, rendering it impervious to standard trade-offs of utility or compromise. In politics, such ...

Coupling two approaches of game theory can shed light on how moral norms evolve. Selfless behaviour and cooperation cannot be taken for granted. Mohammad Salahshour of the Max Planck Institute for ...