7 morals are common to all cultures

: The largest and most comprehensive survey of morals across 60 societies – including Indian – by researchers at the University of Oxford has concluded that there are seven rules common to all, reflecting commonality across cultures.

The seven rules are: ‘help you family, help your group, return favours, be brave, defer to supe- riors, divide resources fairly, and respect others’ property’, says the study titled ‘Is It Good to Cooperate? Testing the Theory of Morality-as-cooperation in 60 Societies’.

Previous studies have looked at some of these rules in some places – but at all in a large representative sample of societies. The study by experts at Oxford’s Institute of Cognitive & Evolutionary Anthropology has been published in ‘Current Anthro- pology’. The team analysed ethnographic accounts of ethics from 60 societies, comprising over 600,000 words from over 600 sources, a statement from the university said.

Oliver Scott Curry, l ead author, s ai d: “The debate between moral universalists and moral relativists has raged for centuries, but now we have some answers. People everywhere face a similar set of social problems, and use a similar set of moral rules to solve them”.“as predicted, these seven moral rules appear to be universal across cultures. Everyone everywhere shares a common moral code. All agree that cooperating, promoting the common good, is the right thing to do.'

The study tested the theory that morality evolved to promote cooperation, and that – because there are many types of cooperation – there are many types of morality.

LONDON