How to make people act morally

[zurew]

51 minutes ago, integral said:

The issue with discipline is this person is being bombarded with delicious food options everywhere. it's a lot easier to justify eating something that is socially accepted, then raping someone.

Yeah, but there is a difference, between having an unbearable craving to eat something vs having a normal craving to eat an unhealthy food. In the second part you can rationally choose , but in the first part you are in animal mode, and your rationality isn't there .

When enough rationality is involved, we evaluate (consciously or unconsciously based on our morality, and belief system) what to do and what to choose. So generally speaking intrinsic motivation is everything, because thats the thing we can have direct impact on. We can be manipulated by others. People can use our weaknesses like (instincts, cravings, needs etc) to manipulate us and to put us in animal mode, but when we are not manipulated, we will be acting based on a collective moral system, and based on our own subjective moral system and beliefs. 

But i agree, that it is on a spectrum. Its much much much more harder to manipulate you to kill someone vs to eat unhealthy food, so i agree with you on that. It is about how deep and centric certain beliefs and values are.

So there are two things here. How can we create a society where people are less triggered and less manipulated to act based on their instincts. The second part is, how can we have a significant impact on people to help them develop and grow out of certain moral and belief systems.

Edited June 14, 2022 by zurew

[BlueOak]

23 hours ago, Fearey said:

I think of morals as a set of values people aspire to reach in order to become what they believe to be a better person. Not necessarily their current way of operating in the world. 

If a certain action suddenly became immoral to you, you would probably try to find a way to stop doing it.

People aren't all aspiring to be a better person, this is your goal I assume? It's not for a lot of people.

You apply morals to use them to guide you, a lot of people don't. Some people even go as far as to celebrate immorality or excess, or breaking the rules even or especially because they know it's wrong. I would say it's a spectrum you are looking at, not a black or white response.