Jonathan Haidt

Main ideas

• In The Righteous Mind he shows that moral judgments arise intuitively first, and a rational justification comes only after them ("the emotional dog and its rational tail").
• Moral foundations theory: care, fairness, loyalty, authority, sanctity, liberty — people and cultures weigh them differently, and that is why they disagree while both sides are in good faith.
• Understanding another person means understanding which foundations their morality stands on.

What we take

Humility toward rationalization: what you pick in the test is your reading of your own motivation — and that, on its own, is a valuable piece of self-reflection. The six layers overlap the moral foundations in part (Relationships ↔ loyalty and care, Order ↔ authority, Principles ↔ fairness).

What we do differently

Haidt describes above all the cross-cultural and political differences in morality. We look inside one person: how their motivations change from one area of life to another.

Recommended books

• The Righteous Mind (2012), in Czech Morálka lidské mysli
• The Happiness Hypothesis (2006)

Sources

• Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814–834 — intuition first, justification afterwards.
• Graham, J., Haidt, J., et al. (2013). Moral foundations theory. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 55–130 — six moral foundations.
• Haidt, J. (2012). The Righteous Mind. Pantheon.