Anthropologists at the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at University of Oxford have identified seven universal moral codes.
Conducting an extensive search through ethnographic data spanning 300 years from unique 603 sources on 60 different societies spread all across the world, Senior Researcher Oliver Scott Curry, Postdoctoral Researcher Daniel Austin Mullins, and Chair of Social Anthropology Harvey Whitehouse found that helping kin, helping your group, reciprocating, being brave, deferring to superiors, dividing disputed resources, and respecting prior possession were viewed as universally positive traits.
...In the ethnographic literature on the studied societies, these qualities and actions were mentioned positively 961 times and negatively only once. The single exception was seen amongst the Chuuk people who predominantly dwell in the Federated States of Micronesia, a chain of islands in the Western Pacific. Some in Chuuk society believe that "to steal openly from others is admirable in that it shows a person’s dominance and demonstrates that he is not intimidated by the aggressive powers of others."
..."The theory of “morality-as-cooperation” argues that morality consists of a collection of biological and cultural solutions to the problems of cooperation recurrent in human social life," they wrote.
The foundation of morality has been debated and discussed for thousands of years. Philosophers, theologians, scientists, and religious figures have jumped into the fray with all sorts of ideas. Most of these hypotheses come with little empirical backing, so it's refreshing to see Curry, Mullins, and Whitehouse support their favored theory with data.
The data is far from perfect, however....