Regular Ph.D. Fellow, Cohort 2021

Dissertation topic
Moral Deviance Across Cultures - Investigations of the Human Moral Mind

Dissertation abstract
My dissertation deals theoretically and empirically with human morality. More specifically, morally deviant behavior is the focus of the research that I conducted together with a team of international colleagues and which is presented in my dissertation. In addition to morality, the human self and culture are the further pillars of my work. As an overarching goal of my PhD, I pursued the research question which moral system guides cooperation in different cultures? In seven chapters my thesis deals theoretically, but then mainly empirically, with human morality, selfhood, and culture. Chapter 1 discusses the three theoretical foci of my work, mainly against the background of evolutionary theories. At the end of the first chapter, I derive several hypotheses that were tested empirically. Chapter 2 focuses on comparative cultural research and prepared the ground for investigations of cross-cultural similarities and differences in morality. With regard to moral tendencies, my research concentrates on comparisons between Egypt, Germany, Japan and the United States of America. Chapters 3 through 6 address independent yet complementary cross-cultural investigations of the human moral mind. In these chapters, I examine the overarching research question of my dissertation using a range of methods. It is particularly noteworthy that the data examined were collected using a newly developed set of instruments — a scale, a factorial survey, and nine moral dilemma scenarios — thereby expanding the range of research tools available for cross-cultural studies of the human moral mind. Eventually, Chapter 7 provides a summary discussion and a conclusion. Cross-cultural research on our morality is situated in the field of tension between the poles of the culturally specific and the universally human. The results of my investigations also fall within this field of tension. My dissertation is be able to provide strong empirical indications of 8 universal moral domains on the one hand, and present results that demonstrate the massive influence of culture on the calibration of our moral mind on the other. Overall, my dissertation aims to make three contributions: First, a small theoretical contribution is suggested by synthesizing two leading moral theories and proposing a new approach based on them. Second, three different instruments that are meant to expand researcher’s toolbox for cross-cultural studies on morality are developed and tested in my thesis. Third, I attempt to make an empirical contribution by examining the moral systems of four heterogeneous cultural entities. All in all, my thesis is guided by the hope that this dissertation will shed some light on the human disposition that drives us to self-regulation and that enables us to work together with others so profoundly and extensively: our morality.

Current Job
University of Hamburg
Postdoctoral Researcher