Morality in the 21st Century: Interdisciplinary Insights into Moral Judgments in a Transforming World

Dear Colleagues,

The 21st century has introduced significant transformations in technology, globalisation, intergroup relations, and environmental change, all of which place new pressures on how individuals and societies make moral judgments. At the heart of this issue lies the fundamental tension between altruism and self-interest, and the question of how people navigate moral choices in complex social environments. From digital behaviour tracking to artificial intelligence, contemporary tools provide unprecedented opportunities to study the gap between attitudes and actions. Why do individuals hold strong obligations toward the dead, distant others, or future generations? What motivates moral concern for abstract global issues such as climate change? How do these concerns shape identity, legacy, and social action? Understanding morality today requires perspectives that cut across traditional disciplinary boundaries, integrating insights from social psychology, moral philosophy, social sciences, and political theory.

This Special Issue invites interdisciplinary contributions that examine how people evaluate right and wrong, harm and fairness, responsibility and future obligations. We welcome empirical studies, theoretical analyses, experimental philosophy, conceptual papers, and mixed-methods approaches.

Dr. Sylvia Terbeck
Guest Editor

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