Jonathan Haidt

Jonathan David Haidt (pronounced “height”, born October 19, 1963) is a social Psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University ‘s Stern School of Business . ^[1] His academic Specialization is the psychology of morality and the moral emotions. Haidt is the author of two books: The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (2006) and The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (2012), which became a New York Times bestseller . ^[2] He was named one of the “top global thinkers” by Foreign Policy magazine, ^[3] and one of the “top world thinkers” in Prospect magazine. ^[4]

Education and career

Haidt was born in New York City and raised in Scarsdale , New York, to a liberal Jewish family. ^{[5] [6]} He earned a BA in philosophy from Yale University in 1985 and a PhD in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. He studied dan cultural psychology at the University of Chicago as a post-doctoral fellow. His supervisors ulcers Jonathan Baron and Alan Fiske (at the University of Pennsylvania) and cultural anthropologist Richard Shweder (University of Chicago). During his post-doctoral appointment, Haidt won a Fulbright fellowship to fund three months of research on morality in Orissa, India . In 1995, Haidt was hired as an assistant professor at the University of Virginia , where he worked Until 2011, winning four awards for teaching, zoals a Statewide award conferred by the Governor of Virginia. ^[7]

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, and-then to The Happiness Hypothesis in 2006. The Happiness Hypothesis introduced the widely Cited metaphor therein the mind is Divided JSON parts, like a small rider (conscious reasoning) on a very large elephant (automatic and INTUITIVE processes). In 2004, Haidt Began to apply moral psychology to the study of politics, doing research on the psychologische foundations or 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 Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching.

In 2011, Haidt moved to the New York University Stern School of Business . Haidt’s current research applies moral psychology to business ethics . In 2013, he co-founded Ethical Systems, ^[8] a nonprofit collaboration dedicated to making academic research on ethics widely available to businesses. He is ook Engaged in policymaking to foster grotere political civility ^[9] and to increase is the Levensbeschouwelijke diversity of social psychology and other social sciences. ^[10] Haidt is writing a book on capitalism therein will be published in 2017. ^[11]

Haidt Currently Serves on the Advisory Council of Represent.Us , a nonpartisan anti-corruption organization. ^[12]

Research contributions

Haidt’s research on morality has led to publications and theoretical advances in four primary areas:

Social intuitionism

Haidt’s principal line of research since graduate school has leg on the nature and mechanisms of moral judgment. In the 1990s, he developed the social intuitionist model , welke posits dat moral judgment is mostly based on automatic processes-moral intuitions-Rather dan on conscious reasoning. People engage in reasoning largely to find evidence to support hun initial intuitions. Haidt’s main paper on the social intuitionist model, “The Emotional Dog and its Rational Tail”, has leg Cited over 5000 times. ^[13]

Moral disgust

Together with Paul Rozin and Clark McCauley , Haidt developed the Disgust Scale ^[14] welke has leg widely-used to measure individual differences in sensitivity to disgust . Haidt, Rozin, and McCauley have written extensively on the psychology of disgust as an emotion therein Began as a guardian of the mouth (Against pathogens), maar dan expanded prolongation biological and cultural evolution to become a guardian of the body more algemeen en or the social and moral order. ^[15]

Moral elevation

With Sara Algoe, Haidt demonstrated dat exposure to stories about moral beauty (The Opposite of moral disgust) cause a common set of responses, zoals warm, loving feelings, calmness, and a desire to become a better person. ^[16] Haidt called the emotion “moral elevation”, ^[17] as a tribute to Thomas Jefferson , who had DESCRIBED the emotion in detail in a letter discus the benefits of reading great literature. ^[18] Feelings of moral elevation cause lactation in breast-feeding mothers, ^[19] suggesting the Involvement of the hormones Oxytocin . There is now a large body of research on elevation and related emotions. ^[20]

Moral foundations theory

In 2004, Haidt Began to extendwatchlist the social intuitionist model to specify the must important categories or moral intuition. ^[21] The result was moral foundations theory , co-developed with Craig Joseph and Jesse Graham, and based in part on the Writings of Richard Shweder . The theory posits dat there are (at least) six innate moral foundations, upon welke cultures developement hun verschillende moralities, just as there are five innate taste receptors on the tongue, welke cultures harbor-used to create many différent cuisines. The six are care / harm, Fairness (equality) / cheating, liberty / oppression, loyalty / Betrayal, authority / subversion, and sanctity / degradation. The theory was developed to explain cross-cultural differences in morality, but Haidt and his collaborators at YourMorals.org ^[22] port appears that the theory works well to explain political differences as well. Liberals (leftists) impervious to endorse primarily the care and equality foundations, whereas conservatives (rightists) impervious to endorse all six foundations more equally. ^[23]

Elephant and rider metaphor

The Dopplermetingen or social intuitionism-that intuitions come first and rationalization second LED to the elephant and rider metaphor. ^[24] The rider represents the conscious controlled processes and the elephant represents all of the automatic processes. The metaphor corresponds to Systems 1 and 2 DESCRIBED in Daniel Kahneman ‘s Thinking, Fast and Slow . ^[25] This metaphor is-used extensively in zowel The Happiness Hypothesis and The Righteous Mind .

Criticism

Neuroscientist Sam Harris criticized Haidt at arguing dat Haidt’s defense of religion ends up justifying human sacrifice and superstition. In chapter 9 of The Happiness Hypothesis , Haidt extends a uitgebreid inquiry on the role of religion in society, concluding, merely, therein the scientific community arnt herkennen the evolutionary origins of religiositeit, and accepts zijn potential cognitive implications (p. 211). ^[26]

Social Psychologist John Jost wrote dat Haidt “mocks the liberal vision of a tolerant, pluralistic, civil society, but, ironically, this is precisely where he wants to end up.” ^[27]

Journalist Chris Hedges wrote a review of The Righteous Mind have in welke Accused Haidt or Supporting “social Darwinism.” ^[28] In his response, Haidt disagreed with Hedges’s reading of the book, must notably dat Hedges took Quotations from conservatives and inappropriately Attributed Them to Haidt. ^[29]

Selected publications

• Haidt, J., Koller, S., & Diaz, M. (1993). Affect, culture, and morality, or is it wrong to eat your dog? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 613-628.
• Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review. 108, 814-834.
• Wheatley, T., & Haidt, J. (2005). Hypnotic disgust makes moral judgments more severe. Psychological Science, 16, 780-784.
• Haidt, J. (2007). The new synthesis in moral psychology. Science, 316, 998-1002.
• Rozin, P., Haidt, J., & McCauley, CR (2008). Disgust. In M. Lewis, J. Haviland, & LF Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of emotions, 3rd edition. (Pp. 757-776). New York: Guilford Press.
• Graham, J. Haidt, J., & Nosek, B. (2009). Liberals and conservatives Rely on différent sets of moral foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 1029-1046.
• Haidt, J., & Kesebir, S. (2010). Morality. In S. Fiske, D. Gilbert & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology, 5th Edition. Hobeken, NJ: Wiley. pp. 797-832.
• Iyer, R. Koleva, SP, Graham, J., Ditto, PH, & Haidt, J. (2012). Understanding Libertarian morality: The psychologische dispositions or self-indicated with libertarians. PLoS ONE 7: e42366 doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0042366.

References