Hey City Zen!

By and large the types of moral behavior people actually engage in (rather than just talk about) is evolutionarily adaptative. By this I am not implying that in reality that people are amoral. I am saying they are moral pragmatists. Most of the time they engage in cooperative behavior. They engage in minor low cost acts of minor altruism to keep a good reputation. They keep their acts of immorality minor and well hidden to avoid reprisals from society. They remain consistent in their actions to be viewed as reliable and to maintain stable behavior patterns. They only only engage in extremely altruistic or selfish acts when circumstances are extraordinary or among rare (probably brain damaged) individuals.