By universal he meant that he believed the stages are true of all societies. Originally Kohlberg believed that in every culture there are people at all six stages. But more recently he questioned whether stage 6 is ever actually achieved. it is true, however, that the dominant moral stage for the society as a whole, or for a given age level, differ from one culture to another. One culture may operate mostly on stage 2 reasoning, another on stage 4 reasoning. But his does not mean that the patterns of moral thought are quite different in the two-cultures. Rather, the discrepancies result because the children in one society advance up the six-stage hierarchy at a different rate than children in the other society. The differences in rate might be due partially to genetic differences between the two groups but more likely result from differences in the role-tasking opportunities and justice structures of the two cultures.