Psychology of Morality - Jonathan Haidt

Wow, liberals and conservatives (in the USA sense) have something in common. Each aspect of the political spectrum has something to share, something to contribute so that humans can coexist and cooperate.

Click either "player" below to play the TED talk


Great quotes

“If you think half of America votes badly because they are stupid or religious, you are trapped in a matrix ... Take the red pill, learn some moral psychology and step outside the moral matrix.” - Jonathan Haidt, author of The Happiness Hypothesis

“If you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between 'for' and 'against' is the mind’s worst disease.” - Jonathan Haidt, quoting Sent-ts’an, from 700CE China

Haidt begins with the premise that a child is not born "a blank slate" but with a built in system draft or a pattern of organization that is revised by experience:

Five foundations of morality:

• Harm/care, that makes really bond with ohers, care for others
• Fairness/reciprocity
• Ingroup/loyalty, only among humans very large groups can join together and collaborate
• Authority/respect
• Purity/sanctity, more than sex (ie organic food for lefties)

Based on a study asking people about "your morals"



Liberals Reject Authority, Groups, and concern for purity

But, society and civilization exists because of the ability to organize humans into groups:

• Fairness and cooperation improves with some sort of punishment for free-riding
• Religion evolves to make groups cohere