The Golden Rule — “Do unto others as you’d want others to do unto you” — is one of the world’s most recognized ethical principles. But why has such a simple idea taken root in so many places, and what does it look like in action?
Historians have found versions of the Golden Rule in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, proving that its wisdom is truly timeless and cross-cultural.
Assessing the Golden Rule’s Popularity
A simply amazing variety of cultures across history have embraced versions of the Golden Rule. So many in fact that you may actually find it difficult to discover a culture or historical period that didn’t have its own version.
In this section, we briefly scan some of the historical and cultural occurrences of the Golden Rule in order to show you just how widespread and popular it really is. Looking at the cross-cultural nature of this rule is important to show you that although cultures and different historical periods diverge greatly, they still have the Golden Rule in common. The following sections answer why the Golden Rule has been used for years and explains how different cultures have used it and still use it today.
Can you think of a time when someone applied the Golden Rule toward you? How did it affect your relationship or your day?
Understanding Why the Golden Rule Endures
- ✓ It appeals to common sense.
- ✓ It’s short, clear, and simple.
- ✓ It builds on motivations and feelings that people already have.
- ✓ It has an obvious and immediate practical importance.
Why wouldn’t millions upon millions of people choose to follow this rule?
More specifically, the Golden Rule has endured for thousands of years because of the following reasons, which are based on the rule’s redeeming qualities:
- It’s easy to learn and understand. If you’ve ever engaged in moral education with children, you know that teaching a child ethics can be particularly challenging because you feel the need to explain why this or that is right or wrong. Unfortunately, ethics often can involve complicated reasoning, so explaining “why” can be challenging when a child is young. The Golden Rule, however, is easy to understand. When your kid is fussing about sharing candy, a simple reminder of how it felt when the other kid refused to share makes the point.
- It makes sense. The Golden Rule has the advantage of being truly commonsensical to people regardless of their particular cultural or historical contexts. Both the nonreligious and the religious can appreciate its reasoning. The rich and the poor both get it. Caucasians, African Americans, Westerners, Easterners, and 5th century and 21st century people — they all get it. The motto of “doing unto others” just has basic human appeal and makes common sense.
- It motivates people. Successful ethical approaches tend to succeed in building onto motivational structures and desires that people already have. In terms of the Golden Rule, finding that existing motivation is pretty easy because it starts with a belief that people basically love themselves and want to care for themselves. It’s okay to admit it — self-love isn’t bad.
- It helps maintain civilized society. If you want to live in an efficient and orderly society, widespread use of the Golden Rule is crucial. In fact, most actions leading to social unrest, chaos, or fear spring from a rejection of the rule’s way of thinking. If most people could learn to behave according to the Golden Rule, societies would function pretty darn effectively. If everyone has an interest in living in a civilized society, then everyone has strong reasons to teach that rule to others and follow it themselves.
The Golden Rule is only a religious teaching and doesn’t apply to secular or non-Western cultures.
The Golden Rule appears in countless cultures and belief systems, both religious and secular, from ancient Hinduism and Confucianism to Roman philosophy and beyond.
The ethical principle that you should treat others as you wish to be treated yourself; a guideline for evaluating actions by imagining yourself in the other person’s place.
Why do you think simple ethical principles like the Golden Rule can be more enduring than complex philosophical arguments?
Making an Appearance over the Ages
The Golden Rule suggests that you test your proposed actions toward others by seeing how that action would look if you were on the receiving end. If you really start digging, you quickly see that the prevalence of this thinking is widespread across different cultures and time periods.
- “This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you.” (Hinduism)
- “All people tremble at the rod, all people fear death. Putting oneself in the place of others, kill not nor cause to kill.” (Buddhism)
- “No one of you is a believer until he loves for his sibling what he loves for himself.” (Islam)
- “To those who are good (to me), I am good. And to those who are not good (to me), I am also good. And thus all get to be good.” (Taoism)
- “What I do not wish others to do to me, I also do not wish to do to others.” (Confucianism)
- “May I do to others as I would that they should do to me.” (Plato’s philosophy)
- “Whatsoever you would that people should not do to you, do not do that to them.” (Judaism)
- “This is then, the sum and substance of my advice: Treat your inferior as you would be treated by your superiors.” (Roman stoicism)
- “Do not that to another, which you would not have done to yourself.” (Thomas Hobbes’s philosophy)
Pretty amazing, isn’t it? Given the fact that the Golden Rule is so heavily used by parents to morally educate their children, you can just imagine Hindu parents, Buddhist parents, Confucian parents, and Christian parents (just to name a few!) all joining together in the common exercise of pointing out this truly timeless wisdom to their children. No doubt they’ll be teaching the same principle in the year 3015 as those in the fifth century did! Who knows? If there’s life on Mars, maybe Martian parents use the Golden Rule to educate their little alien children too!
- The Golden Rule is a universal ethical guideline found in nearly all cultures and eras.
- Its durability comes from its simplicity, common sense appeal, and effectiveness in motivating ethical behavior.
The ability to understand and share another person’s feelings or perspective — a key ingredient for applying the Golden Rule effectively.
Applying the Golden Rule Requires Seeing Yourself in Another’s Shoes
Ethical theories can get really complicated. Luckily, the Golden Rule is pretty easy. With the Golden Rule, all you need to do is view the situation from how someone else would see it before you act. This section covers the nuts and bolts of using this rule in your life, including looking closer at the kind of thinking the rule requires and at how you need to be aware of some common problems that can arise when applying the Golden Rule.
Want to go deeper? The science behind empathy and moral reasoning
Modern psychological research shows that empathy — the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes — is not only crucial for moral development, but also for building trust and cooperation in society. Neuroscience even reveals “mirror neurons” in our brains that activate when we observe the experiences of others, helping us relate to their joys or pains.
Think about anti-bullying campaigns in schools. Almost all of them ask students to consider how their actions would feel if they were the victim — a direct application of the Golden Rule in everyday life.
How might your daily decisions change if you paused to imagine yourself on the receiving end of your actions?
Eyeing the Golden Rule’s Basic Tenets
Because applying the Golden Rule as a test of whether your actions are appropriate requires putting yourself in the shoes of another person, you need to consider two basic requirements to fully grasp the Golden Rule:
- You must be able to see the other person’s interests as not only basically similar to yours but also worth taking into consideration in the first place. So if you find your own interests worthy of consideration, you have every reason to think that the interests of others also are worthy of consideration. If your interest in avoiding red-hot pokers is important, you should consider other beings’ interests in the same things.
Think about cases where this requirement doesn’t exist. When deciding to hammer a nail into a wall, you probably don’t think of how hammering that nail would seem to you if you were the hammer. After all, if you were a hammer, you wouldn’t care if you were used to nail something. After all, hammers don’t even have a point of view. So if you want to use a hammer to pound in a nail, that’s fine. Applying the Golden Rule to interactions with a hammer makes no sense, because they have no interests to consider in the first place.
Practice empathy by evaluating a real-life situation through the lens of the Golden Rule.
- Recall a recent decision where your actions affected someone else, big or small.
- Imagine you were on the receiving end of your own actions. How would you feel? Would you want to be treated that way?
- Write down how you might have changed your action if you had used the Golden Rule as your guide.
What is the core principle of the Golden Rule?
Tap to revealTreat others as you would want to be treated yourself.
Which two world religions explicitly include versions of the Golden Rule?
Tap to revealChristianity and Confucianism (among many others).
What human quality is essential for applying the Golden Rule effectively?
Tap to revealEmpathy — the ability to imagine yourself in another’s shoes.
Think of a time when you or someone you know struggled to apply the Golden Rule. What was challenging about it, and what might have made it easier?
Which quality is most crucial for applying the Golden Rule to ethical decisions?
The Golden Rule’s enduring power comes from its universal appeal, simplicity, and its foundation in empathy — motivating ethical behavior across cultures and time.
The motto of “doing unto others” just has basic human appeal and makes common sense.