Do strict moral rules make societies happier?

Añadido: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Here's a surprising [music] finding about what people think makes a society flourish. You might expect [music] that people believe that a moral code designed to maximize happiness and minimize suffering would lead to the best society.

[00:00:13]But when you ask people [music] to imagine different societies, they felt otherwise. They believed that such a moral code, one [music] that was predicated on maximizing welfare, will fail to do so relative to other codes that weren't as concerned [music] with maximizing welfare. In other words, people seem to think that a system designed to maximize welfare might actually undermine it.