Towards a scientific understanding of who we are

Moral foundations

Moral foundations theory explains human morality on the basis of innate, modular foundations. The theory (currently) proposes five (or six) foundations: Care/Harm, Fairness/Cheating, Loyalty/Betrayal, Authority/Subversion, Sanctity/Degradation, with the sixth, Liberty/Oppression, under debate.

While the theory has broad applicability to social and individual behaviour, investigation has so far focused mainly on political ideology.