Keeper of the Chaos

This is an entire argument in legal philosophy about whether people obey the law out of fear of consequences or out of internalizing the values. In criminal law it's often a blend of both, i.e. you don't want to ruin your life by drunk driving and also you believe drunk driving is wrong. When it comes to other areas of law, not to mention just morality in general, it gets a lot more complex. I'm struck by the fundamentally bleak view of humanity the rhetoric of control through fear reflects--like, do so few people buy into social values that fear is all that keeps them in line? Is that something wrong with people, or with social values, or both?