Jonathan Haidt
Encyclopedia
Jonathan Haidt is a professor of psychology
at the University of Virginia
. His research focuses on the psychological bases of morality
across different cultures and political ideology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania
in 1992. He was awarded the Templeton Prize in Positive Psychology in 2001. His book The Happiness Hypothesis
examines ten "great ideas" dating from antiquity
and their continued relevance to the happy
life. A certain portion of his research has been focused on the emotion of elevation.
s and identifies five fundamental moral values shared to a greater or lesser degree by different societies and individuals. These are:
Haidt found that Americans who identified as liberal
s tend to value care and fairness considerably higher than loyalty, respect, and purity. Self-identified conservative Americans value all five values more equally, though at a lower level across the five than the liberal concern for care and fairness. Both groups gave care the highest over-all weighting, but conservatives valued fairness the lowest, whereas liberals valued purity the lowest. Similar results were found across the political spectrum in other countries.
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
at the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
. His research focuses on the psychological bases of morality
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
across different cultures and political ideology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
in 1992. He was awarded the Templeton Prize in Positive Psychology in 2001. His book The Happiness Hypothesis
The Happiness Hypothesis
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom is a psychology book for the general reader by Jonathan Haidt, Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia...
examines ten "great ideas" dating from antiquity
Ancient history
Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC...
and their continued relevance to the happy
Happiness
Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....
life. A certain portion of his research has been focused on the emotion of elevation.
Moral Foundations Theory
His Moral Foundations Theory looks at the way morality varies between cultureCulture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
s and identifies five fundamental moral values shared to a greater or lesser degree by different societies and individuals. These are:
- Care for others, protecting them from harm. (He also referred to this dimension as Harm.)
- Fairness, Justice, treating others equally.
- Loyalty to your group, family, nation. (He also referred to this dimension as Ingroup.)
- Respect for tradition and legitimate authority. (He also referred to this dimension as Authority.)
- Purity, avoiding disgusting things, foods, actions.
Haidt found that Americans who identified as liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
s tend to value care and fairness considerably higher than loyalty, respect, and purity. Self-identified conservative Americans value all five values more equally, though at a lower level across the five than the liberal concern for care and fairness. Both groups gave care the highest over-all weighting, but conservatives valued fairness the lowest, whereas liberals valued purity the lowest. Similar results were found across the political spectrum in other countries.
See also
- Positive psychologyPositive psychologyPositive psychology is a recent branch of psychology whose purpose was summed up in 1998 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise, which achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in...
- The ethics of transcendence
External links
- Homepage
- Moral Foundations Theory Homepage - homepage of Haidt's research group
- "Moral Psychology and the Misunderstanding of Religion" - piece written for Edge.org
- Video of presentation on morality at New Yorker "2012: Stories from the Near Future" conference
- Video interview with Will WilkinsonWill WilkinsonWill Wilkinson is a Canadian American libertarian writer. Until August 2010, he was a research fellow at the Cato Institute where he worked on a variety of issues including Social Security reform and, most notably, the policy implications of happiness research. He is currently working on a paper...
on Bloggingheads.tvBloggingheads.tvBloggingheads.tv is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast online to viewers... - Video discussion with philosopher Joshua KnobeJoshua KnobeJoshua Knobe is an experimental philosopher currently employed as an assistant professor in the Program in Cognitive Science and Department of Philosophy at Yale University. He was previously Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Knobe received his...
on Bloggingheads.tv - Video of presentation, 2007, Beyond Belief: Enlightenment 2.0
- TED Talks: Jonathan Haidt on the moral roots of liberals and conservatives at TEDTED (conference)TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
in 2008 - Bigthink Interview: The Righteous Mind