The Righteous Mind
Haidt, J. (2012). The righteous mind : why good people are divided by politics and religion. New York: Pantheon Books.
Interesting, bold, and provocative book which shines a new light on moral psychology and presents a message for a pluralist society. I first read a chapter of this book in a political theory course and was immediately captivated by the topic of moral psychology. @jonathan.haidt changed how I viewed ideology and gave me the tools to understand and communicate respectfully with people of different political views.
Book: The first part of the book explores how moral decisions are made, and concludes that moral judgments stem from intuitions, not logic. The second part of the book introduces the „moral foundations theory“ which argues that there are multiple foundations to morality beyond harm, justice, and liberty which is assumed in „WEIRD“ societies. The third and final part of the book discusses the „hive switch“ which makes people groupish and how it can be used in a political context.
Favourite quote: „Morality binds and blinds… the human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor“ (p. 328).