Same flavours, different taste buds: a theory for predicting social norms for specific behaviours across cultures

Abstract Behavioural norms vary across cultures, and they vary in distinct ways for different behaviours. We show that this variation is not random but highly predictable. We introduce the Moral Flavours Model, a theory proposing that norms emerge from three factors: how much moral concern a behaviour evokes overall, its ‘moral flavour’ (the type of concern it evokes), and societies’ ‘moral tastes’ (their sensitivity to different types of concern). We demonstrate that this simple framework predi