What is the source of morality? This is a question that has bothered philosophers, theologians and others for centuries. Science, however, is now providing us with some significant insights. A few examples are cited in 7 Principles of Nature: How We Strayed & How We Return (see pp. 101-104) by Aldrich Chan, a neuropsychologist teaching and practicing in Florida.

We already know about capuchin monkeys and their sense of fairness. If two monkeys in adjoining cages are both conditioned to perform the same specific task with the reward of a peanut, they will happily comply. But if one of the monkeys receives a grape, which is a more valuable reward than a peanut, the other will rattle its cage in objection, throw a temper tantrum, and refuse to do its task. And in other experiments with capuchin monkeys, they prefer to share their reward with others rather than just keep it for themselves.

In another monkey example, provided by Chan, some rhesus monkeys, in laboratory conditions, would refuse to administer an electric shock to other monkeys, even when they were being bribed with food. “One of the monkeys in their experiment starved itself for five days, another monkey starved itself up to twelve days”—before the experiment was presumably terminated for safety reasons.

Chan cites other examples. Rats have demonstrated in experiments that they will risk their own safety to save a distressed fellow rat. Another example pertains to rat play, which helps develop dominance hierarchies. Writes Chan, “During play, the dominant rat would pin the other rat 70% of the time. But here’s the twist—if the dominant rat exceeded the 70/30 ratio, the losing rat would then refuse to play, thereby injecting the notion of fairness into the equation. For humans, by the way, the ratio is 60/40.”

Helping seems to be an instinctive behaviour in many species. In laboratory conditions with chimpanzees and children, if an object was placed out of reach for the experimenter, 12 of 18 chimps and 16 of 18 infants, which were about 18 months old, would spontaneously help to move the object closer so it could be reached.

In human studies with puppets, babies that were clearly too young to make moral evaluations, showed a clear preference for the “good” puppet over the “bad” puppet in a staged drama. They also showed clear signs of concern when other babies were alone and crying, but less so when they were with a parent.

In the world of insects, ants, bees and termites demonstrate intrinsic values that favour the support of the collective, which is really the ultimate purpose of morality. Indeed, all their behaviour seems to be dedicated to the wellbeing of the colony, all of which is accomplished without an apparent code of conduct. One of the wonders of the world, according to E.O. Wilson, a prominent etymologist, is the spontaneous creation of a collective consciousness when a critical number of ants, bees and termites assemble.

The same process accounts for morality in humans. Because it occurs so naturally and spontaneously, we are inclined to forget that most of our significant accomplishments are the result of behaviour that is guided by a collective agreement of right and wrong. Schools, universities, hospitals, roads, ferries and bridges are the obvious ones. We could not travel safely anywhere in the world without this morality, and we are legitimately offended when anyone breaks the basic rules. Indeed, our entire democratic political system, as well as our economic and banking systems, are based on the collective agreement that comes from trusting, cooperating and sharing. We are fundamentally social beings, and our success as a species is dependent on a morality that is so intrinsic that we rarely notice it.

Archeologists have noted that when explorers encounter people who have never before met each other, one of the first things they do is trade, an activity that can be interpreted as a gesture of mutual assisting and bonding. Kindness, caring and compassion are reinforcing measures of a morality that is an essential part of our ecology of being—something worth remembering all year long.

Ray Grigg for Sierra Quadra

Top image credit: Face of a Capuchin Monkey Photo by Amaury Laporte via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)