KEYNOTE
THE RIGHTEOUS MIND: WHY GOOD PEOPLE
ARE DIVIDED BY POLITICS AND RELIGION
Jonathan Haidt
What on Earth is Happening to Us?
Polarization, demonization and
paralysis in American politics
Jonathan Haidt
NYU-Stern
Part I: The Good News
Wealth is skyrocketing!
China
India
Source: Derek
Thompson (2012)
in The Atlantic
Extreme poverty is heading to zero!
Democracy is Triumphant!
From Pinker (2011)
Genocide has nearly disappeared!
From Pinker (2011)
Rape and Homicide are plummeting in USA!
From Pinker (2011)
Cold War Over! We Won!
Part II: The Bad News
Graph 1: The Parties are increasingly Polarized
Source: PolarizedAmerica.com (McCarty Poole, & Rosenthal, 2006, 2010)
Graph 2: Partisans dislike the other party more
90
80
Warmth toward
OWN party
70
60
50
40
Warmth toward
OTHER party
30
20
10
0
Carter
Reagan
Bush I
Clinton
Source: ANES, and Marc Hetherington, Vanderbilt U.
Bush II
Obama
Graph 3: Trust in Govt is down…
Source: ANES, and Marc Hetherington, Vanderbilt U.
Especially for Republicans
What Happened?
1) Party realignment and purification after 1965
2) Generational and cultural change (greatest gen to
baby boomers)
3) Changes in Congress in 1995
4) Media fractionation and polarization
5) Increasing immigration and racial diversity
6) Increasing role of money, negative advertising
7) End of the cold war (no common enemy)
8) Residential homogeneity (“the big sort”)
9) Increasing education levels (voters can follow policy)
Part III: Moral Psychology
The 3 Principles of Moral Psych
1) Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second
2) There’s more to morality than harm and fairness
3) Morality binds and blinds
The 3 Principles of Moral Psych
1) Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second
2) There’s more to morality than harm and fairness
3) Morality binds and blinds
Plato: Reason is the Master
Reason can and should rule over
the passions
Hume: Reason is the servant
“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of
the passions, and can never pretend to any
other office than to serve and obey them.”
2/3 of Republicans (and 1/3 of Dems) say
President Obama can bring down gas prices.
But when Bush was in office, numbers were
flipped.
2/3 of Dems (and only ½ of Repubs) say NSA
snooping (with court order) is OK.
But when Bush was in office, 3/4 of Republicans
(and 1/3 of Dems) said NSA’s (warrantless) snooping
was OK.
Implications for Civility
1) We gullibly accept claims that support our
partisan prejudices, and use all our powers to
reject disconfirming info.
2) We live in two separate moral “matrices,”
each with its own set of historical, scientific,
and constitutional facts
Why? Where do these different worlds come
from?
The 3 Principles of Moral Psych
1) Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second
2) There’s more to morality than harm and fairness
3) Morality binds and blinds
Moral Foundations Theory
Shweder et al. 1997
Haidt & Joseph, 2004
Haidt & Graham, 2007
A
N
T
H
R
O
E
------Care/harm------------------ V
------Fairness/cheating-------- O
------Liberty/oppression-------L
------Loyalty/betrayal----------------Authority/subversion----- U
------Sanctity/degradation----- T
I
O
N
1. Care/harm
Care & Compassion are big at OWS
And on liberals’ cars
2. Fairness/cheating
Proportionality, equity,
karma.
No free riders, slackers,
cheaters
Fairness as equality, mixed with compassion, is
big on the left
But the deep psychological root of fairness is
PROPORTIONALITY, not equality
Tea Party rally, 2010
(photos by Emily Ekins)
But the deep psychological root of fairness is
PROPORTIONALITY, not equality
Tea Party rally, 2010
(photos by Emily Ekins)
3. Liberty/oppression
3. Liberty/oppression
Negative Liberty: Don’t constrain me
Constraint triggers reactance: angry resistance
Positive liberty
Left-wing, social justice: Focus on the rich and
powerful as threat to positive liberty of victim
groups. (Govt is the only protector)
Care
Fairness (proportionality)
Liberty (economic)
n=3,764
YourMorals.org
4. Loyalty/betrayal
5. Authority/subversion
5. Authority/subversion
6. Sanctity/degradation
Care
Fairness (proportionality)
Liberty (economic)
Authority
Loyalty
Sanctity
n=3,764
YourMorals.org
Implications for Civility
1) Liberals builds moral matrix on care, fairness (as
equality) and positive liberty; see conservatives as
cruel, callous enablers of corporate exploitation.
2) Social Conservatives build moral matrix on all 6
foundations; see liberals as naïve bleeding hearts,
trampling on fairness (proportionality), negative
liberty, authority, and sanctity
Is it any wonder that the two sides demonize each
other?
The 3 Principles of Moral Psych
1) Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second
2) There’s more to morality than harm and fairness
3) Morality binds and blinds
Large scale cooperation is rare
Image: Mark Osgatharp
Image: J. Brew
Morality binds and blinds
We circle around sacred objects & principles
We circle around sacred objects & principles
Circling around shared values creates
a moral electromagnet
Sacred Objects must be defended!
No jokes, insults, or utilitarian tradeoffs.
Irrational commitment required
Manichaeism: the world is an eternal battle between
the forces of darkness and the forces of light
Demonization
Heretics, Traitors, Apostates
Graph 1: The Parties are increasingly Polarized
Source: PolarizedAmerica.com (McCarty Poole, & Rosenthal, 2006, 2010)
The states are even more
polarized than Washington!
From: Shor & McCarty (2011).
The Ideological Mapping of
American Legislatures. APSR.
Political Polarization: Movement toward the
poles -- from a normal distribution to a more
bimodal distribution.
Political Civility: The ability to disagree with
others while respecting their sincerity and
decency.
The 3 Principles of Moral Psych
1) Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second
2) There’s more to morality than harm and fairness
3) Morality binds and blinds
What Happened?
What Happened?
1) Party realignment and purification after 1965
2) Generational and cultural change (greatest gen to
baby boomers)
3) Changes in Congress in 1995
4) Media fractionation and polarization
5) Increasing immigration and racial diversity
6) Increasing role of money, negative advertising
7) End of the cold war (no common enemy)
8) Residential homogeneity (“the big sort”)
9) Increasing education levels (voters can follow policy)
2) Generational and Cultural Change
4) Media Fractionation & Polarization
What Can We Do?
1) Party realignment and purification after 1965
2) Generational and cultural change (greatest gen to
baby boomers)
3) Changes in Congress in 1995
4) Media fractionation and polarization
5) Increasing immigration and racial diversity
6) Increasing role of money, negative advertising
7) End of the cold war (no common enemy)
8) Residential homogeneity (“the big sort”)
9) Increasing education levels (voters can follow policy)
Reforms to Weaken the Magnet:
1) Elect fewer hyper-partisans, e.g.:
--More open primaries
2) Weaken pressures to act hyper-partisan, e.g.:
--Counteract Citizens United ruling
3) Re-build cross-party relationships, e.g.:
--Change legislative calendar to
3 weeks on, one off
See CivilPolitics.org for more
What you can do
1) Commit to civility: “the ability to disagree
with others while respecting their sincerity
and decency.” No demonizing.
2) Commit to saving the game. Reforms for good
governance, not partisan advantage.
3) Relationships improve reasoning… and
legislation. Find new friends/advisors across
the aisle
For more info: www.RighteousMind.com
1) Party Realignment
Residential
homogeneity
Leads to
ideological
homogeneity,
“lifestyle enclaves”
Density makes people Democrats
Source: Dave Troy, Fueled by Randomness
5) Changes in Washington
--Gingrich wants revenge, more combative party
--Committee chairmen appointed, not seniority
--Minority party more shut out
--Changes legislative calendar
--New social order, very little
fraternizing
--Changes filter up to Senate too
Part IV: What Now?
We can’t reverse most of the changes that
brought us hyper-polarization
Therefore:
--Polarization is here to stay.
--But it doesn’t have to be as high as the civil
war era. We can return to 1990s levels.
--The problem isn’t the politicians, it’s the game
they are forced to play
We’ve got to repair the game
--reduce role of money
--reduce incentives for bad sportsmanship
What you can do
Inspiring end:
--relationships are key; go make them!
--no labels
Common Threats Make Common Ground
www.AsteroidsClub.org
Americans values are further apart…
only when you divide us by party
The New Culture War
The old culture war
% of Americans who believe that global warming has already begun.
Gallup data, reported by McCright & Dunlap (2011), fig adapted by Hoffman (2011) Nature Climate Change
Trust plummets after 2003
Gallup: http://www.gallup.com/poll/157685/americans-trust-judicial-branch-legislativeleast.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_content=morelink&utm_term=Politics
Plea for relationships
We need reforms to foster relationships in
Washington
We need ways to meet partisans on the other
side, on friendly ground
Relationships open hearts, and open hearts
open minds
Fundamental Institutional Reforms
“I will argue that the only realistic
alternative to continued gridlock in
Washington is not a revival of
bipartisanship but an American
version of responsible party
government. However, I will also
argue that responsible party
government cannot work without
some fundamental reforms,
especially ending the filibuster in the
Senate.”
What you can do
1) Join NoLabels.org. Urge your reps to become
“problem solvers.”
2) Join CommonCause.org. Support political and
campaign finance reform.
3) Moral humility: Each of us is biased in our
reasoning, and blind to our biases.
Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but
do not notice the log in your own eye? . . . You
hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and
then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your
neighbor’s eye. (Matthew 7:3–5)
Compassion, Fairness, and (Positive) liberty
We are true to our creed when a little
girl born into the bleakest poverty
knows that she has the same chance
to succeed as anybody else, because
she is an American, she is free, and
she is equal, not just in the eyes of
God but also in our own.
The commitments we make to each
other – through Medicare, and
Medicaid, and Social Security – these
things do not sap our initiative; they
strengthen us. They do not make us
a nation of takers; they free us to take
the risks that make this country great.
The New Culture War