Historic Moral Foundations Cast a Long Shadow: Insights From a Novel Folktale Dataset

Abstract

It is often maintained that most values, norms and moral systems are largely time invariant but empirical evidence supporting that claim has been virtually non-existent. This study is a first step to change that. Since folktales, such as legends and fairy tales, are often transmitted virtually unchanged from generation to generation, we rely on them to extract information about the moral foundations held dear by different societies in the past. On the basis of some 15,000 folktales from 58 countries, we show that these moral foundations are good predictors for contemporaneous attitudes.