Jonathan Haidt
Jonathan Haidt | |
---|---|
Born | Jonathan David Haidt October 19, 1963 New York City, U.S. |
Education | Yale University (BA) University of Pennsylvania (MA, PhD) |
Known for | |
Spouse | Jayne Riew |
Children | 2 |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Social psychology Moral psychology |
Institutions | University of Chicago University of Virginia New York University |
Thesis | Moral Judgment, Affect, and Culture, or, Is it Wrong to Eat Your Dog? (1992) |
Doctoral advisor | Jonathan Baron Alan Fiske |
Website | jonathanhaidt |
Jonathan David Haidt (/haɪt/; born October 19, 1963) is an American social psychologist and author. He is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at the New York University Stern School of Business.[1] His main areas of study are the psychology of morality and moral emotions.
Haidt's main scientific contributions come from the psychological field of moral foundations theory,[2] which attempts to explain the evolutionary origins of human moral reasoning on the basis of innate, gut feelings rather than logic and reason.[3] The theory was later extended to explain the different moral reasoning and how they relate to political ideology, with different political orientations prioritizing different sets of morals.[4] The research served as a foundation for future books on various topics.
Haidt has written four books for general audiences:
Biography
Haidt was born in New York City and raised in
In 1999, Haidt became active in the new field of positive psychology, studying positive moral emotions. This work led to the publication of an edited volume, titled Flourishing, in 2003. In 2004, Haidt began to apply moral psychology to the study of politics, doing research on the psychological foundations of ideology. This work led to the publication in 2012 of The Righteous Mind. Haidt spent the 2007–2008 academic year at Princeton University as the Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching.[14]
In 2011, Haidt moved to
Research contributions
Haidt's research on morality has led to publications and theoretical advances in four key areas.[17]
Moral disgust
Together with Paul Rozin and Clark McCauley, Haidt developed the Disgust Scale,[18] which has been widely used to measure individual differences in sensitivity to disgust.[18] Haidt, McCauley and Rozin have written on the psychology of disgust as an emotion that began as a guardian of the mouth (against pathogens), but then expanded during biological and cultural evolution to become a guardian of the body more generally, and of the social and moral order.[19]
Moral elevation
With Sara Algoe, Haidt argued that exposure to stories about moral beauty (the opposite of moral disgust) cause a common set of responses, including warm, loving feelings, calmness, and a desire to become a better person.[20] Haidt called the emotion moral elevation,[21] as a tribute to Thomas Jefferson, who had described the emotion in detail in a letter discussing the benefits of reading great literature.[22] Feelings of moral elevation cause increases in milk produced during lactation in breastfeeding mothers,[23] suggesting the involvement of the hormone oxytocin.
Social intuitionism
Haidt's principal line of research has been on the nature and mechanisms of moral judgment. In the 1990s, he developed the social intuitionist model, which posits that moral judgment is mostly based on automatic processes—moral intuitions—rather than on conscious reasoning.[24] People engage in reasoning largely to find evidence to support their initial intuitions. Haidt's main paper on the social intuitionist model, "The Emotional Dog and its Rational Tail", has been cited over 7,800 times.[25]
Moral foundations theory
In 2004, Haidt began to extend the social intuitionist model to identify what he considered to be the most important categories of moral intuition.[26] The resulting moral foundations theory, co-developed with Craig Joseph and Jesse Graham, and based in part on the writings of Richard Shweder, was intended to explain cross-cultural differences in morality. The theory posited that there are at least five innate moral foundations, upon which cultures develop their various moralities, just as there are five innate taste receptors on the tongue, which cultures have used to create many different cuisines. The five values are:[27]
- Care/harm
- Fairness/cheating
- Loyalty/betrayal
- Authority/subversion
- Sanctity/degradation
Haidt and his collaborators asserted that the theory also works well to explain political differences. According to Haidt, liberals tend to endorse primarily the care and fairness foundations, whereas conservatives tend to endorse all foundations more equally.[27] Later, in The Righteous Mind, a sixth foundation, Liberty/oppression, was presented.
"The elephant and the rider"
One widely cited metaphor throughout Haidt's books is that of the elephant and the rider. His observations of social intuitionism, the notion that intuitions come first and rationalization second, led to the metaphor described in his work.[28] The rider represents consciously controlled processes, and the elephant represents automatic processes. The metaphor corresponds to Systems 1 and 2 described in Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow.[29] This metaphor is used extensively in both The Happiness Hypothesis and The Righteous Mind.
Non-academic works
Haidt has authored the following non-academic books for general audiences, related to various subjects in psychology and politics.
The Happiness Hypothesis
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (2006) draws on ancient philosophical ideas in light of contemporary scientific research to extract potential lessons and how they may apply to everyday life.[30] The book poses "ten Great Ideas" on happiness espoused by philosophers and thinkers of the past – Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Buddha, Jesus, and others – and then considers what modern scientific research has to say regarding these ideas.[31]
The Righteous Mind
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion (2012) draws on Haidt's previous research on
The Coddling of the American Mind
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (2018), co-written with Greg Lukianoff, expands on an essay the authors wrote for The Atlantic in 2015.[32] The book explores the rising political polarization and changing culture on college campuses and its effects on mental health. It also explores changes in childhood, including the rise of "fearful parenting", the decline of unsupervised play, and the effects of social media in the last decade.[33]
Political views
Haidt describes how he began to study political psychology in order to help the Democratic Party win more elections, and argues that each of the major political groups—conservatives, progressives, and libertarians—have valuable insights and that truth and good policy emerge from the contest of ideas.
Haidt is involved with several efforts to help bridge the political divide and reduce
In a 2011 Ted talk, Haidt argued that liberals and conservatives differ in their value systems and that disciplines like psychology have biases against conservative viewpoints.[38]
In 2019, Haidt argued that there is a "very good chance American democracy will fail, that in the next 30 years we will have a catastrophic failure of our democracy".[39]
Reception
Haidt was named one of the "top global thinkers" by Foreign Policy magazine in 2012, and one of the "top world thinkers" by Prospect magazine in 2013.[40][41]
While himself an atheist,
David Mikics of Tablet magazine profiled Haidt as "the high priest of heterodoxy" and praised his work to increase intellectual diversity at universities through Heterodox Academy.[42]
In 2020, Peter Wehner wrote in The Atlantic, "Over the past decade, no one has added more to my understanding of how we think about, discuss, and debate politics and religion than Jonathan Haidt." He added that, "In his own field, in his own way, Jonathan Haidt is trying to heal our divisions and temper some of the hate, to increase our wisdom and understanding, and to urge us to show a bit more compassion toward one another."[43]
Selected publications
Books
- 2006. ISBN 978-0-465-02802-3.
- 2012. ISBN 978-0-307-37790-6.
- 2018. OCLC 1007552624.[44]
- 2024. ISBN 978-0-593-65503-0.
Articles
- 1993. "Affect, culture, and morality, or is it wrong to eat your dog?" with S. Koller, and M. Dias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65:613–628.
- 2001. "The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment." Psychological Review 108:814–834.
- 2005. "Hypnotic disgust makes moral judgments more severe", with T. Wheatley. Psychological Science 16:780–784.
- 2007. "The new synthesis in moral psychology." Science 316:998–1002.
- 2008. "Disgust", with P. Rozin and C. R. McCauley. pp. 757–776 in Handbook of Emotions (3rd ed.), edited by M. Lewis, J. Haviland, and L. F. Barrett. New York: Guilford Press.
- 2009. "Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations", with J. Graham and B. Nosek. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 96:1029–1046.
- 2010. "Morality", with S. Kesebir. Pp. 797–832 in Handbook of Social Psychology (5th ed.), edited by S. Fiske, D. Gilbert, and G. Lindzey. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.
- 2012. "Understanding Libertarian morality: The psychological dispositions of self-identified libertarians", with Ravi Iyer, Spassena Koleva, Jesse Graham, and Peter Ditto. PLoS ONE 7(8):e42366.[45]
- 2015. "Ideological diversity will improve psychological science", with José L. Duarte, Jarret T. Crawford, Charlotta Stern, Lee Jussim, and Philip E. Tetlock. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 38:e130.[46]
- 2017. "Make business ethics a cumulative science", with L. Trevino.
References
- ^ a b c "Jonathan Haidt – Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership". New York University Stern School of Business.
- ^ McNerney, Samuel. "Jonathan Haidt and the Moral Matrix: Breaking Out of Our Righteous Minds". Scientific American. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
- ^ "The moral matrix that influences the way people vote". The Guardian. November 14, 2016. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
- ^ Winerman, Lea. "Civil discourse in an uncivil world". American Psychological Association. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
- .
- ^ a b Saletan, William (March 23, 2012). "The Righteous Mind, by Jonathan Haidt". The New York Times. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
- ^ Eaton, George (January 2, 2019). "Jonathan Haidt interview: 'I'm Jewish but I want my kids to read Mein Kampf". New Statesman.
- ^ a b Jenkins Jr., Holman W. (June 29, 2012). "Jonathan Haidt: He Knows Why We Fight". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ "Transcript for Jonathan Haidt – The Psychology Behind Morality". On Being. June 12, 2014. Archived from the original on June 17, 2015.
- ^ a b c d Haidt, Jonathan (September 21, 2007). "Moral Psychology and the Misunderstanding of Religion". Edge Foundation, Inc. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
- ^ "Jonathan Haidt – The Psychology of Self-Righteousness". On Being. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
- ^ Wade, Nicholas (September 18, 2007). "Is 'Do Unto Others' Written Into Our Genes?". The New York Times. Retrieved July 21, 2019.
- ^ "Governor Warner Announces TIAA-CREF Virginia Outstanding Faculty Awards Recipients for 2004". State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. January 21, 2004. Archived from the original on May 1, 2007. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
- James Madison Program. Princeton University. May 8, 2012. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
- ^ Brockman, John. "Jonathan Haidt, Biography". Edge Foundation, Inc. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
- ^ "Our Story". Heterodox Academy. Retrieved July 4, 2021.
- ^ Caldow, Stephanie (January 28, 2019). "Jonathan Haidt: The Contributions of a Moral Psychologist". PositivePsychology. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
- ^ doi:10.1016/0191-8869(94)90212-7. Archived from the original(PDF) on May 28, 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
- S2CID 144762306.
- ^ Algoe, Sara B. and Jonathan Haidt. 2009. "Witnessing excellence in action: The 'other-praising' emotions of elevation, gratitude, and admiration." Journal of Positive Psychology 4:105–127.
- ^ Haidt, Jonathan. 2003. "Elevation and the positive psychology of morality." pp. 275–289 in Flourishing: Positive Psychology and the Life Well-lived, edited by C. L. M. Keyes and J. Haidt. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
- ^ Jefferson, Thomas. [1771] 1975. "Letter to Robert Skipwith", pp. 349–351 in The Portable Thomas Jefferson, M. D. Peterson ed. New York: Penguin.
- ^ Silvers, J., and Jonathan Haidt. 2008. "Moral elevation causes lactation." Emotion 8:291–295.
- S2CID 146369020.
- S2CID 2252549.
- S2CID 1574243.
- ^ S2CID 2715121.
- ^ McNerney, Samuel. "Jonathan Haidt and the Moral Matrix: Breaking Out of Our Righteous Minds". Scientific American (blog)). Retrieved February 2, 2013.
- ^ Haidt, Jonathan (October 7, 2012). "Reasons Matter (When Intuitions Don't Object)". The New York Times. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
- ^ Flint, James (July 22, 2006). "Don't worry, be happy". The Guardian. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
- ^ Carter, Christine. "Book Review: The Happiness Hypothesis". Greater Good Science Center. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
- ^ Lukianoff, Greg; Haidt, Jonathan (September 2015). "The Coddling of the American Mind". The Atlantic. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
- ^ Singal, Jesse (September 26, 2018). "How 'Coddled' Are American College Students, Anyway?". New York Magazine. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
- ISBN 978-0307455772.
- ^ Jonathan Haidt [@JonHaidt] (January 23, 2018). "huh? I have never been right of center. I have never voted for a republican, nor given a dollar to a conservative candidate or cause. I am a centrist, a JS Mill liberal, who is now politically homeless" (Tweet). Retrieved July 27, 2020 – via Twitter.
- ^ Goldman, Andrew, interviewer. July 27, 2012. "A Liberal Learns to Compete". The New York Times. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
- ^ Weiss, Bari (April 1, 2017). "Jonathan Haidt on The Cultural Roots of Campus Rage". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
- ^ Henriques, Gregg (January 1, 2012). "Jonathan Haidt's Moral-Political Psychology". Psychology Today. Retrieved March 27, 2024.
- ^ Kelly, Paul (July 22, 2019). "America's Uncivil War on Democracy". The Australian. Retrieved March 27, 2024..
- ^ "The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers". Foreign Policy. November 26, 2012.
- ^ "World Thinkers 2013". Prospect. April 24, 2013.
- ^ Mikics, David (July 21, 2019). "The High Priest of Heterodoxy". The Tablet. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
- ^ Wehner, Peter (May 24, 2020). "Jonathan Haidt Is Trying to Heal America's Divisions". The Atlantic. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
- ^ Aaronovitch, David (August 18, 2018). "Review: The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt – how we raised Generation Snowflake". The Times. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
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External links
- Media related to Jonathan Haidt at Wikimedia Commons
- Official website
- Jonathan Haidt publications indexed by Google Scholar