Moral Complexity

A tricky term, morality can’t be neatly defined. This is partially because morality is broad; our moral values often extend beyond compassion and fairness and include group-focused concerns of loyalty and obedience. Defining morality is also hard because people are “moral acrobats” who can easily convince themselves of the righteousness of their actions. Most people genuinely believe that they are morally above average; this includes people we would normally find less moral, such as prisoners and perpetrators of genocide. In lieu of a clear definition, I use the word “moral” to mean the mental processes that are engaged when people think about the world in terms of good and evil.