Unearthing the Foundations: Testing the Moral Foundations Theory in Three Small-Scale Populations

Moral Foundations Theory proposes five moral domains: Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, and Purity. However, its empirical support has largely been drawn from affluent, highly educated societies, limiting its generalisability and our understanding of how socioecological contexts shape moral judgment.To address this gap, we tested the structure of Moral Foundations Theory in three non-industrialised populations: Hadza hunter-gatherers, Datoga pastoralists, and Iraqw agropastoralists. We developed the Moral Foundations Boards, a pictorial tool to assess sensitivity to moral violations in low-literacy contexts. Participants completed this task, while a United States sample served as a comparative reference.The five-factor structure was not consistently replicated. However, moral judgments varied across populations. Hadza and Datoga participants showed greater sensitivity to Purity violations and reduced sensitivity to Care violations compared to the United States sample. These findings question the structural consistency of the five-factor model and highlight the importance of socioecological context in moral psychology.