By JERRY COYNE - WHY EVOLUTION IS TRUE
Added: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:16:26 UTC

The Templeton Foundation has two major goals, promoting capitalism and blurring the line between science and faith. So it’s hardly surprising that their Big Questions online magazine would publish an article claiming that capitalism is an important source of human morality. And it’s not that surprising that they’d also claim an evolutionary basis for this wonderfully fortuitous and Gekko-ish conjunction of greed and ethics.

What is surprising is that the argument is made by Michael Shermer.

Shermer is a well known—and well respected (including by me)—skeptic, author of several good books (Why Darwin Matters, Why People Believe Weird Things), columnist for Scientific American, and publisher of Skeptic magazine. So it’s really, really sad to see him pushing the Templeton Thesis on the Templeton website. Templeton is, after all, devoted to effacing the demarcation between science and woo, a demarcation that Shermer has vigorously defended for years. And it’s disturbing to see him once again in the pay of the Templeton machine, making an argument that, while supporting their mission, seems pretty thin.

Here’s his thesis:

Given the economic roller-coaster ride of the past two years, the idea that capitalism promotes morality might seem like an oxymoron. The imperfections of the market system, the wild swings of the boom-and-bust cycle, and the “animal spirits” of irrational investors have revealed the gulf between economic theory and financial reality — and have put the advocates of capitalism on the defensive. But let’s not get carried away. As every economist knows, the market system, based on the free exchange of goods, is the greatest prosperity-generating machine ever invented. Nor are markets just a necessary evil that we must regretfully tolerate. To the contrary, trade itself leads directly and measurably to greater virtue — to higher levels of generosity, fairness, and trust. But don’t take my word for it. There is plenty of experimental evidence to back me up, and it points to the deep evolutionary foundations of the market’s moral effects.

Shermer then goes on to describe experiments with apes and monkeys showing that they seem to have an elementary sense of fairness. A monkey trained to exchange a pebble for a cucumber slice, for instance, will suddenly go on strike if it sees another monkey getting a much tastier grape. Humans, too, will turn down free money in a “split” with another person if that other person claims too much of the pie. From this Shermer concludes (agreeing with the psychologist who did that study) that “we are naturally inclined to be fair and generous with our kin and kind because of genetic relatedness and reciprocal connectedness.”
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