The Good, the Bad, or the Cooperative – A New Approach to Morality: Investigating the Relationships Between Attachment, Compassion, and Morality-as-Cooperation

Background and Aims
The theory of Morality-As-Cooperation (MAC) proposes that moral standards are the collection of biological and cultural solutions to the problems of cooperation recurrent in human social life (Curry, 2016). In the psychological literature, there is an emerging interest in investigating how our moral relationships with others can be considered underpinned by developmental attachment styles or capacity for compassion. In the current study, potential associations and interactions between attachment, compassion, and MAC moral domains were investigated together in a general population sample.

Methods
Drawing on a critical realist epistemological position, this study employed a crosssectional, quantitative correlational design. Adult participants (N=200) were recruited via an online survey platform to complete a series of validated self-report measures of attachment and compassion, along with the MAC questionnaire (MACQ).

Results
The results showed that attachment style and compassion have differential associations with reported relevance of MAC domains to moral judgements. Compassion to Others was found to mediate the relationship between secure
attachment styles and moral relevance to Family Values, Group Loyalty, Fairness, and Possession Rights domains. In contrast, Compassion to Others did not mediate any relationships between Insecure-Anxious attachment styles and personal moral orientation.

Conclusion
The findings suggest that morality is related to, and informed by, capacity for compassion and in specific attachments styles. The approach taken may contribute to understanding the relationships between developmental experiences and moral judgements. Clinical implications, particularly regarding contributions to psychological formulations and attachment- or compassion- based therapies, are discussed. However, further research is needed to replicate the findings in a more diverse and representative sample.