Tag morality

Liberals vs Conservatives

Haidt claims that genes account for whether you are left/right a lot more than upbringing does. A single gene doesn’t predict much. But...

The Definition of Morality

For Western/modern society, the author favors rule utilitarianism (best rules that will produce the greatest good) as opposed to act...

Religion and Charity

Is God a Force of Good or Evil? Religious people generally give more in charity, but usually to their own kind or through their own...

Religion and the New Atheists

You cannot understand religion by looking at the individual. You must look at the collective. The Lone Believer Critics of religion...

Hives

The hive switch: The ability to temporarily transcend self-interest and lose ourselves in something bigger. It is essentially a...

Group Selection

Group Selection: If a trait benefits the group against other groups, but not the individual against other individuals in the same group,...

Punishment for Improving Cooperation

Reciprocal altruism theory explains why altruism/fairness behavior develops among pairs (tit for tat) but does not explain it...

Hierarchy vs Egalitarianism

Republicans appeal to all 5 moral tastes than Democrats, who appeal to only 1 or 2. This is why the former tend to have an edge...

Moral Foundations

Notable was Haidt’s criticism of amateur evolutionary theorists: They pick a trait and see if they can find a story that explains it. A...

Bentham and Kant: Bias Towards Reason as a Root of Morality

Moral monism is the reduction of morality to a single principle (e.g. don’t do harm). Haidt argues this is unhealthy for society. Is...

The Ethic of Divinity

Psychologists have a tendency to study the mind independent of culture. Anthropologists tend to study the culture and not the mind....

WEIRD People

Most research in psychology is conducted on WEIRD people. WEIRD stands for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic. But...

The Rationalist Delusion

So do good reasoning skills lead to more moral behavior (the atheist’s dream)? A study found that moral philosophers behave just like...

Self-Esteem, Cheating, Voting and Confirmation Bias

Self-Esteem Is self-esteem about how we perceive ourselves, or about how we perceive other’s perceptions about ourselves? Levy Study:...

The Search For Truth?

There has existed for a long time a dilemma: Is it better to be just and honest in a world that will never recognize you as such, vs...

When Does an Elephant Listen to Reason?

Primarily by engaging with others. On can change via introspection, but others are more likely to give us non-confirmatory evidence....

Deontologists vs Utilitarianists

Utilitarianism (save the most lives) vs Deontologism (cannot impinge on individual rights - even to save many lives). Both claim their...

Infants’ Sense of Morality

Infants do not appear to be born with a blank slate. They have certain expectations on the physical laws, as well as the social laws. By...

Psychopaths

1% of males are psychopaths. Fewer females are. Most are nonviolent. But virtually half of crimes like serial rape and killing,...

Cleanliness and Morality

The sense of smell impacts moral judgments. Asking participants to fill out a survey on moral scenarios in the presence of fart smell...

Implicit Association Test

Affective Priming: Flash words like sunshine or cancer to the screen. You need to judge whether the word is positive or negative. If you...

Brains Evaluate Instantly and Constantly

Our brains evaluate everything instantly in terms of potential threat or benefit, and adjusts behavior to get more of the good and less...

Thalia’s Hypnosis Study

Hypnotized one set of students and made them dislike the word “take”. Hypnotized another set and made them dislike “often”. Gave them 6...

Does Reason Exist to Serve The Passions? Or Vice Versa?

The rationalist delusion: The worship of reason and the distrust of passions. It is a delusion because once you declare it to be an...

Sociocentrism vs Individualism Part 2

To tackle Turiel’s concern that the “harmless” stories could be interpreted as harmful, Haidt decided to do a similar story, but added a...

Sociocentrism vs Individualism

Most societies have a need to “resolve” the tension between individuals and the society. Most societies are sociocentric: The group has...

The Anthropologist View

Anthropologists had studied and documented that many unrelated cultures had: Witchcraft and sorcery themes - with a great deal of...

Morality vs Social Conventions

To gauge a child’s developmental level, it is important that the method of gauging doesn’t rely on the child’s verbal abilities - this...

How Do Kids Learn About Morality? Role-playing

How do children learn right from wrong? There used to be 2 theories: Nature: Nativist (be it through God or evolution) Nurture:...

The Righteous Mind

Introduction Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning comes second. Moral intuitions arise automatically - long before moral reason....