Morale represents the happiness of the population, and is divided by 
Population to compute 
Approval. Thus, to maintain Approval, it is important for Morale to keep pace with the Population, which will grow for the sake of 
Raw Production. Higher Morale also enables a higher 
Tax Rate, so Morale is also important for growing the Treasury.
Synthetic Life are not concerned with Morale, as they receive +100 Morale everywhere and thus always have 100% Approval. Their challenge is the direct construction of Population.
Generation
Morale does not grow naturally per turn as Population will, so it is necessary to active bolster Morale, mostly through the construction of Improvements, such as the Entertainment Center, Entertainment Capital, and the 
Harmony Crystals resource. Intimidating civilizations can pursue the Intimidation Center. Many Morale improvements depend on specific Abilities and Race Types.
Other sources of Morale bonuses:
- The technologies
Xeno Geology, Populist Party, Supportive Population, Approval-focused Culture, The Way of Bliss, Easy to Please and Shadow Enforcers - Certain galactic events and colonization events
- Certain planet types
- The Galaxy United Celebration resolution
- The Hopeful ability
- The Celebrity citizen in
- Certain Cabinet members, Crisis events and Ships in
- Certain mercenary ships in
- The Needy ability, Jeff ship and Temple of Jeff improvement in the Heroes of Star Control: Origins DLC
- An anomaly in the Precursor Worlds DLC
Unrest
Unrest is a negative effect on Morale that is proportional to the Tax Rate. The higher the Tax Rate, the lower the Morale, so Approval is a soft cap on the Tax Rate, and taxes are a good way to consume Morale in excess of the Population.