What's Wrong With Morality?

A Social-Psychological Perspective

C. Daniel Batson

Seeks to understand our moral failures by drawing on social-psychological theory and research
Focuses on our own moral and immoral action rather than on judgment about others' behavior
Provides a conceptual framework for understanding moral psychology that includes values, emotions, motives, and behavior
Highlights ethical issues needing further research

What's Wrong With Morality?

A Social-Psychological Perspective

C. Daniel Batson

Description

Most works on moral psychology direct our attention to the positive role morality plays for us as individuals, as a society, even as a species. In What's Wrong with Morality?, C. Daniel Batson takes a different approach: he looks at morality as a problem. The problem is not that it is wrong to be moral, but that our morality often fails to produce these intended results. Why? Some experts believe the answer lies in lack of character. Others say we are victims of poor judgment. If we could but discern what is morally right, whether through logical analysis and discourse, through tuned intuition and a keen moral sense, or through feeling and sentiment, we would act accordingly. Implicit in these different views is the assumption that if we grow up properly, if we can think and feel as we should, and if we can keep a firm hand on the tiller through the storms of circumstance, all will be well. We can realize our moral potential.

Many of our best writers of fiction are less optimistic. Astute observers of the human condition like Austen, Balzac, Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Eliot, Tolstoy, and Twain suggest our moral psychology is more complex. These writers encourage us to look more closely at our motives, emotions, and values, at what we really care about in the moral domain. In this volume, Batson examines this issue from a social-psychological perspective. Drawing on research suggesting our moral life is fertile ground for rationalization and deception, including self-deception, Batson offers a hard-nosed analysis of morality and its limitations in this expertly written book.

What's Wrong With Morality?

A Social-Psychological Perspective

C. Daniel Batson

Introduction

Part I: What's Wrong

Chapter 1: Moral Maladies

Chapter 2: Personal Deficiency

Chapter 3: Situational Pressure

Part II: What's More

Chapter 4: Moral Motivation

Chapter 5: Why Is Moral Integrity Rare, Hypocrisy Common?

Chapter 6: Moral Emotion

Part III: So What

Chapter 7: Moral Combat

Chapter 8: Treating Our Moral Maladies

Reprise

References

What's Wrong With Morality?

A Social-Psychological Perspective

C. Daniel Batson

Author Information

C. Daniel Batson is an experimental social psychologist. He received a Ph.D. in psychology from Princeton University in 1972, and taught at the University of Kansas until his retirement in 2008. For over 30 years, his research has focused on prosocial motivation, with particular emphasis on altruistic and moral motivation, and related emotions. He has published well over a hundred research articles and chapters on these topics, as well as two books on altruism. This is his first book on morality.

What's Wrong With Morality?

A Social-Psychological Perspective

C. Daniel Batson

Reviews and Awards

"Batson's starting point is the observation that moral life suffers from maladies: very often, we fail to live up to our own moral standards. ... According to Batosn, the real role of interpersonal morality is not to control our own behaviour, but that of others: "[...] we want to be treated morally, not to be moral oursevles" (177). ... When Batson looks for ways to strengthen moral behaviour at the end of his book, he does not really believe that true moral motivation can be substanially strengthed." -- Cor van der Weele, Ethical Perspectives

"Scholars and students of moral psychology will find much of interest in this rich, sweeping, and engaging discussion of our 'moral maladies'." --Vanessa Carbonell, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"[This] book is highly useful for graduate students and moral scholars who want to understand whether individual differences in human behavior are a consequence of diverse person characteristics, situational constraints, or a combination of the two... This book offers compelling evidence that what Batson refers to as moral hypocrisy is likely to be more common than moral integrity." --PsycCRITIQUES

"This book will serve as a great introduction to the current state of moral psychology. Written in clear and often witty prose, this volume is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students, especially those in psychology and philosophy, or the general reader interested in the study of moral psychology." --Metapsychology