I’ve been profoundly influenced by Jonathan Haidt’s book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. Haidt divides his book into three, roughly 100-page long parts with each part dedicated to one of these three moral psychology principles:
- Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second – See Perception and Intuition
- There’s more to morality than harm and fairness – See Moral Foundations Theory
- Morality binds people into groups and blinds individuals and groups
Many of the musings I have are influence by my understanding of these principles. For those who haven’t read Haidt’s book or aren’t familiar with the principles above, click the principle for background information about it. That being said, I strongly encourage everyone visiting this website to read Haidt’s The Righteous Mind.
I think that’s because I’ve always been interested in how people think and behave, how they communicate and miscommunicate. For much of my professional life I was a technical writer and, for a few years, a copywriter. The experiences I had in those professions and in my observations of life in general have led me to believe the hardest thing people do is communicate–well. Haidt’s book has helped me understand why people have such a hard time understanding each other–especially in the realm of morality.