Moral Relativism, Religion, Darwinism and Unethical Behavior
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Date
2018-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
The current study investigates the psychological mechanisms involved in unethical behavior, and the role moral relativism plays. It is known that when exposed to religious material, cheating behaviors decrease, and when exposed to moral relativistic material, cheating behavior increases. In light of this, two questions proposed are whether or not religion decreases moral relativism and thus leads to a decrease in cheating behavior, as well as if thoughts of evolution or Darwinism induces thoughts of moral relativism, which in turn leads to an increase in unethical behavior. Ultimately, this study looks to answer whether or not moral relativism is a mediator for unethical behavior. This hypothesis was tested using an online questionnaire. Participants (n =250) were randomly assigned to the religious, Darwinism/evolution or control condition, and then completed questionnaires measuring moral relativism and willingness to engage in unethical behaviors. Results showed that age was correlated with willingness to engage in unethical behavior. There was an indication that the Darwinism/evolution condition was associated with increased unethical behavior, while there was no effect for the religion condition. There was no significant mediation effect of cheating behavior via moral relativism. Future research can be done looking at how thinking about evolutionary theory leads one to engage in unethical behavior.
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Keywords
Religion, Moral Relativism, Darwinism