THE RIGHTEOUS MIND: WHY GOOD PEOPLE ARE DIVIDED BY POLITICS AND RELIGION (book review) PDF

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90 BOOK REVIEWS us as lovers of Jesus. To the point of forming its rider. The elephant represents automatic cog- Christ-like character as cognitive restructuring, nition such as emotion and intuition; the rider thus affecting core beliefs, intermediate beliefs, represents controlled cognition charac...

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BOOK REVIEWS

us as lovers of Jesus. To the point of forming Christ-like character as cognitive restructuring, thus affecting core beliefs, intermediate beliefs, automatic thoughts and so forth, to those clients who explicitly identify themselves as Christians and seek to address their presenting problem through a Christian worldview, Living into the Life of Jesus may serve as an excellent adjunct to the practitioner’s clinical protocol. * * * THE RIGHTEOUS MIND: WHY GOOD PEOPLE ARE DIVIDED BY POLITICS AND RELIGION. Jonathan Haidt, Pantheon Books, New York, NY, 2012, Pp. xi + 318, Hb, ISBN: 978-0-307-37790-6. Reviewed by Kayla Jordan and Geoffrey W. Sutton, (Evangel University/Springfield, MO). Woodrow Wilson said of conservatives, “A conservative is a man who sits and thinks, mostly sits.” Robert Frost said of liberals, “A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.” As these quotes demonstrate, politics, as well as religion, often divide people. In his book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics And Religion, psychological scientist Jonathan Haidt brings to light a possible source of this division: morality. Moral psychology has long been dominated by Lawrence Kohlberg and Elliot Turiel and their rationalist, developmental approach. Several years ago, Haidt and his colleagues began to develop a social intuitionist approach to moral psychology. In the first few chapters, Haidt retells the experiences, which guided his research. As a graduate student, Haidt began to read anthropological works; with these works, Haidt began to realize that many cultures, including our own, do not fit into the neat stagebased models of Western rationalist morality. Continuing the work of Richard Shweder, Haidt began to devise studies to assess how people of different cultures determine what is moral expecially when appraising violations of harmless taboos as well as the commission of more harmful acts. From these studies, Haidt concluded that emotions and intuitions are instrumental in initial moral judgments, and moral reasoning comes into play after the fact, in order to justify the judgments. Building on these findings, Haidt proposes the first principle of morality, “intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second,” which is the topic of the first part of the book. The analogy used throughout the book is that of an elephant and

its rider. The elephant represents automatic cognition such as emotion and intuition; the rider represents controlled cognition characterized by logic and reason. The elephant responds intuitively to life situations, and the rider provides moral justifications after the fact. Haidt cites the philosophical ideas of Hume as a basis for his model that the rider (reason) serves the elephant (intuition), which is in contrast to rational models presented by Plato and John Stuart Mill. In chapter three, Haidt explores six major discoveries, which support the principle that intuitions come first: the mind evaluates continually and instantaneously, sociopolitical judgments depend on quick intuitions, the senses can influence moral judgments, psychopaths can present reasoned moral judgments which lack emotion, babies seems to have some moral capacity to recognize harm without the presentation of reason, and emotive reactions are connected to the brain areas involved in moral cognition. In the next chapter, Haidt reviews research, which supports the notion that post hoc strategic reasoning is “more like a politician searching for votes than a scientist searching for the truth (p. 76).” This research suggests that impression management and self-serving bias are more influential to moral decisions than is reasoning. The second part of the book focuses on Haidt’s second principle, “There is more to morality than harm and fairness.” Haidt argues that anthropological and psychological research show moral pluralism to be a descriptive reality. Haidt’s analysis leads to an elaboration on moral foundations theory, which posits five moral dimensions: harm, fairness, authority, purity, and loyalty. After exploring how these foundations developed in humans, he applies the theory to politics and religion. Using the Moral Foundations Questionnaire which he developed with Brian Nosek and other collaborators, Haidt found that conservatives tend to use all five foundations whereas liberals tend to use only the foundations of harm and fairness. Haidt also proposes a sixth foundation, liberty, which is used by both sides but in different ways. Haidt hypothesizes that conservatives have an advantage in the political arena due to their consideration of all six foundations. The last part of the book focuses on the principles that, “Morality binds and blinds.” Haidt begins by defending Darwin’s assertion that morality evolved as an adaptation for both individuals and groups. Haidt is well aware of the

BOOK REVIEWS problems inherent in explaining group behavior in terms of evolutionary theory but offers research suggesting the value of morality, religion, and other cultural phenomena to survival. Haidt describes a hypothetical adaptation, the hive switch, which is the ability of people to overcome simple self-interest and serve the interest of one’s group. Furthermore, this hive switch is often activated by politics, religion, and other groupish institutions. In the case of politics and religion, morality is used to serve the interest of the group and promote group cohesion. His chapter on the psychology of religion adds a belonging factor to the traditional study of belief and behavior norms as rubrics for explaining the importance of religion. Haidt devotes the last chapter to exploring why political groups disagree and possible ways that these disagreements could be used constructively.

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Readers of JPC will find The Righteous Mind an excellent overview of recent developments in moral psychology of interest to theologians, philosophers, behavioral scientists, and clinicians. The research cited by Haidt aptly summarizes relevant studies. He also provides a link to online findings and measures at www.yourmorals.org. Academicians may wish to consider this as a text in upper division and graduate courses dealing with ethics, morality, and religion. Clinicians will find the six dimensional rubric helpful in assessing client’s moral values and judgments in a broader framework than offered by other models. Haidt’s model may be especially relevant to a better understanding of cultural diversity. *

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