[4] Changes in social practices and institutions can precede and ultimately foster changes in individual moral beliefs throughout society.
[2] This can lead to faster progress in practices than in beliefs; in other words, with external pressures, individuals and organizations may behave better not because of their inherent beliefs, but because of considerations of social expediency and enlightened self-interest.
[2] As Musschenga and Meyned noted, "Most contemporary Dutchmen will agree that the Netherlands since the 16th century made moral progress.
"[4] Jeremy Evans, however, made an argument that is should be possible to create a definition of moral progress that "relies on a correlation between increasing population welfare ... and ethical advancement".
Social scientist Jacy Reese Anthis, for example, has argued for moral circle expansion as an important metric of moral progress and as an approach to bettering the long-term future for all sentient beings.