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'''Jonathan David Haidt''' ({{IPAc-en|h|aɪ|t}}; born October 19, 1963) is an American [[Social psychology|social psychologist]] and Professor of Ethical Leadership at [[New York University]]'s [[Stern School of Business]].<ref>[http://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/jonathan-haidt Stern.nyu.edu]</ref> His academic specialization is the [[moral psychology|psychology of morality]] and the moral emotions. Haidt is the author of three books: ''[[The Happiness Hypothesis]]: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom'' (2006) and ''[[The Righteous Mind]]: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion ''(2012), and ''The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure'' (2018, with Greg Lukianoff). He was named one of the "top global thinkers" by ''[[Foreign Policy]]'' magazine,<ref>[https://foreignpolicy.com/2012globalthinkers Foreignpolicy.com]</ref> and one of the "top world thinkers" by ''[[Prospect (magazine)|Prospect]]'' magazine.<ref>[http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/world-thinkers-2013/#.UfcOZY3bPnF Prospectmagazine.co.uk]</ref> He has given [https://www.ted.com/speakers/jonathan_haidt four TED talks].
'''Jonathan David Haidt''' ({{IPAc-en|h|aɪ|t}}; born October 19, 1963) is an American [[Social psychology|social psychologist]] and Professor of Ethical Leadership at [[New York University]]'s [[Stern School of Business]].<ref>[http://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/jonathan-haidt Stern.nyu.edu]</ref> His academic specialization is the [[moral psychology|psychology of morality]] and the moral emotions. Haidt is the author of three books: ''[[The Happiness Hypothesis]]: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom'' (2006) and ''[[The Righteous Mind]]: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion ''(2012), and ''The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure'' (2018, with [[Greg Lukianoff]]). He was named one of the "top global thinkers" by ''[[Foreign Policy]]'' magazine,<ref>[https://foreignpolicy.com/2012globalthinkers Foreignpolicy.com]</ref> and one of the "top world thinkers" by ''[[Prospect (magazine)|Prospect]]'' magazine.<ref>[http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/world-thinkers-2013/#.UfcOZY3bPnF Prospectmagazine.co.uk]</ref> He has given four [[TED talks]].<ref>[https://www.ted.com/speakers/jonathan_haidt Profile], [[TED talks]]</ref>


== Family ==
== Family ==
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* Graham, J., Haidt, J., and Nosek, B. (2009). "Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations." ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'', 96, 1029–1046.
* Graham, J., Haidt, J., and Nosek, B. (2009). "Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations." ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'', 96, 1029–1046.
* Haidt, J., and Kesebir, S. (2010). "Morality." In S. Fiske, D. Gilbert, and G. Lindzey (eds.) ''Handbook of Social Psychology'', 5th edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. pp.&nbsp;797–832.
* Haidt, J., and Kesebir, S. (2010). "Morality." In S. Fiske, D. Gilbert, and G. Lindzey (eds.) ''Handbook of Social Psychology'', 5th edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. pp.&nbsp;797–832.
* Iyer, R., Koleva, S. P., Graham, J., Ditto, P. H., and Haidt, J. (2012). "Understanding Libertarian morality: The psychological dispositions of self-identified libertarians." ''[[PLoS ONE]]'' 7:e42366 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0042366.
* Iyer, R., Koleva, S. P., Graham, J., Ditto, P. H., and Haidt, J. (2012). "Understanding Libertarian morality: The psychological dispositions of self-identified libertarians." ''[[PLoS ONE]]'' 7:e42366 {{doi|10.1371/journal.pone.0042366}}
*Duarte, J. L., Crawford, J. T., Stern, S., Haidt, J., Jussim, L., & Tetlock, P. E. (2015). Ideological diversity will improve psychological science. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X14000430 ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences'', 38, e130].
*Duarte, J. L., Crawford, J. T., Stern, S., Haidt, J., Jussim, L., & Tetlock, P. E. (2015). "Ideological diversity will improve psychological science." 38, e130, ''[[Behavioral and Brain Sciences]]''. {{doi|10.1017/S0140525X14000430}}
*Haidt, J., & Trevino, L. (2017). Make business ethics a cumulative science. ''[[doi:10.1038/s41562-016-0027|Nature Human Behavior, 1]].''
*Haidt, J., & Trevino, L. (2017). "Make business ethics a cumulative science." ''Nature Human Behavior'', 1. {{doi|10.1038/s41562-016-0027}}


== References ==
== References ==
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== External links ==
== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Commons category}}
* [http://people.stern.nyu.edu/jhaidt/home.html Homepage]
* [http://people.stern.nyu.edu/jhaidt/home.html Homepage], [[New York University Stern School of Business]]


{{Evolutionary psychology|state=collapsed}}
{{Evolutionary psychology|state=collapsed}}

Revision as of 06:56, 17 December 2018

Jonathan Haidt
File:Jonathan Haidt Headshot 2018.jpg
Haidt in 2018
Born
Jonathan David Haidt

(1963-10-19) October 19, 1963 (age 60)
New York City, New York, U.S.
EducationYale University (B.A.),
University of Pennsylvania (PhD)
Scientific career
FieldsSocial psychology, moral psychology, positive psychology, cultural psychology
InstitutionsUniversity of Virginia (1995–2011)
Stern School of Business, New York University (current)
ThesisMoral Judgment, Affect, and Culture, or, Is it Wrong to Eat Your Dog? (1992)
Doctoral advisorJonathan Baron, Alan Fiske
Websitepeople.stern.nyu.edu/jhaidt/

Jonathan David Haidt (/haɪt/; born October 19, 1963) is an American social psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University's Stern School of Business.[1] His academic specialization is the psychology of morality and the moral emotions. Haidt is the author of three books: The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (2006) and The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (2012), and The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (2018, with Greg Lukianoff). He was named one of the "top global thinkers" by Foreign Policy magazine,[2] and one of the "top world thinkers" by Prospect magazine.[3] He has given four TED talks.[4]

Family

Haidt was born in New York City and raised in Scarsdale, New York, in a liberal Jewish family.[5][6]

Education and career

Haidt earned a BA in philosophy from Yale University in 1985, and a PhD in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. He then studied cultural psychology at the University of Chicago as a post-doctoral fellow. His supervisors were Jonathan Baron and Alan Fiske (at the University of Pennsylvania) and cultural anthropologist Richard Shweder (University of Chicago). In 1995, Haidt was hired as an assistant professor at the University of Virginia, where he worked until 2011, winning four awards for teaching, including a statewide award conferred by the Governor of Virginia.[7]

In 1999, Haidt became active in the new field of positive psychology, studying positive moral emotions. This work led to the publication of an edited volume, titled Flourishing, in 2003, and then to The Happiness Hypothesis in 2006. The Happiness Hypothesis introduced the widely cited metaphor that the mind is divided into parts, like a small rider (conscious reasoning) on a very large elephant (automatic and intuitive processes). In 2004, Haidt began to apply moral psychology to the study of politics, doing research on the psychological foundations of ideology. This work led to the publication in 2012 of The Righteous Mind. Haidt spent the 2007–2008 academic year at Princeton University as the Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching.

In 2011, Haidt moved to the New York University Stern School of Business. Haidt's current research applies moral psychology to business ethics. In 2013, he co-founded Ethical Systems,[8] a non-profit collaboration dedicated to making academic research on ethics widely available to businesses. He is also engaged in efforts to foster greater political civility[9] and to increase the ideological diversity of social psychology and other social sciences.[10] In 2015, Haidt co-founded Heterodox Academy, a non profit organization that works to increase viewpoint diversity, mutual understanding, and productive disagreement. In 2018, Haidt co-edited an illustrated edition of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, titled All Minus One: John Stuart Mill’s Ideas on Free Speech Illustrated (2018, co-edited with Richard Reeves, illustrated by Dave Cicirelli). Haidt’s most recent book is The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (2018, co-authored with Greg Lukianoff). Haidt is writing a book on capitalism and morality that will be published in 2021.[11]

Research contributions

Haidt's research on morality has led to publications and theoretical advances in four primary areas:

Social intuitionism

Haidt's principal line of research since graduate school has been on the nature and mechanisms of moral judgment. In the 1990s, he developed the social intuitionist model, which posits that moral judgment is mostly based on automatic processes–moral intuitions–rather than on conscious reasoning. People engage in reasoning largely to find evidence to support their initial intuitions. Haidt's main paper on the social intuitionist model, "The Emotional Dog and its Rational Tail", has been cited over 7,000 times.[12]

Moral disgust

Together with Paul Rozin and Clark McCauley, Haidt developed the Disgust Scale,[13] which has been widely used to measure individual differences in sensitivity to disgust. Haidt, Rozin, and McCauley have written extensively on the psychology of disgust as an emotion that began as a guardian of the mouth (against pathogens), but then expanded during biological and cultural evolution to become a guardian of the body more generally, and of the social and moral order.[14]

Moral elevation

With Sara Algoe, Haidt argued that exposure to stories about moral beauty (the opposite of moral disgust) cause a common set of responses, including warm, loving feelings, calmness, and a desire to become a better person.[15] Haidt called the emotion "moral elevation",[16] as a tribute to Thomas Jefferson, who had described the emotion in detail in a letter discussing the benefits of reading great literature.[17] Feelings of moral elevation cause lactation in breast-feeding mothers,[18] suggesting the involvement of the hormone oxytocin. There is now a large body of research on elevation and related emotions.[19]

Moral foundations theory

Main article: Moral foundations theory

In 2004, Haidt began to extend the social intuitionist model to specify the most important categories of moral intuition.[20] The result was moral foundations theory, co-developed with Craig Joseph and Jesse Graham, and based in part on the writings of Richard Shweder. The theory posits that there are (at least) six innate moral foundations, upon which cultures develop their various moralities, just as there are five innate taste receptors on the tongue, which cultures have used to create many different cuisines. The six are care/harm, fairness/cheating, liberty/oppression, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, and sanctity/degradation. The theory was developed to explain cross-cultural differences in morality, but Haidt and his collaborators at YourMorals.org[21] assert that the theory works well to explain political differences too. According to Haidt, Liberals (leftists) tend to endorse primarily the care and equality foundations, whereas conservatives (rightists) tend to endorse all six foundations more equally.[22]

Elephant and rider metaphor

The observations of social intuitionism–that intuitions come first and rationalization second–led to the elephant and rider metaphor.[23] The rider represents the conscious controlled processes and the elephant represents all of the automatic processes. The metaphor corresponds to Systems 1 and 2 described in Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow.[24] This metaphor is used extensively in both The Happiness Hypothesis and The Righteous Mind.

Political centrism

In chapter 8 of The Righteous Mind, Haidt describes how he began to study political psychology in order to help the Democratic Party win more elections, but in chapter 12 of The Righteous Mind argues that each of the major political groups—conservatives, progressives, and libertarians—have valuable insights and that truth and good policy emerge from the contest of ideas. Since 2012, Haidt has referred to himself as a political centrist.[25] Haidt is involved with several efforts to help bridge the political divide and reduce political polarization in the United States. In 2007, he founded the website CivilPolitics.org, a clearinghouse for research on political civility. He serves on the advisory boards of Represent.Us., a non-partisan anticorruption organization, the Acumen Fund, which invests in companies, leaders, and ideas that are changing the way the world tackles poverty; and Better-Angels.org, a bipartisan group working to reduce political polarization. Three of his four TED talks are on the topic of understanding and reducing political divisions.

His 2012 TED talk on "How common threats can make common ground"[26] introduced a set of ideas on how to use moral psychology to foster collaboration among partisan opponents. This talk became the basis of a bipartisan working group of poverty researchers, which Haidt helped to convene under the auspices of the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution.[27] In 2015, the working group published a report titled "Opportunity, responsibility, and security: A consensus plan for reducing poverty and restoring the American dream".[28]

Criticism

In chapter 9 of The Happiness Hypothesis, Haidt extends a comprehensive inquiry on the role of religion in society concluding that the scientific community should recognize the evolutionary origins of religiosity and accept its potential benefits.[29] Other scientists and philosophers disagree with Haidt's generally positive opinion about religiosity as evidenced in an online debate sponsored by the website Edge.[30]

Social psychologist John Jost wrote that Haidt "mocks the liberal vision of a tolerant, pluralistic, civil society, but, ironically, this is precisely where he wants to end up."[31]

Journalist Chris Hedges wrote a review of The Righteous Mind in which he accused Haidt of supporting "social Darwinism".[32] In his response, Haidt disagreed with Hedges's reading of the book, most notably that Hedges took quotations from conservatives and inappropriately attributed them to Haidt.[33]

Works

Books

  • Haidt, Jonathan; Keyes, Corey L.M. (2002). Flourishing: Positive Psychology and the Life Well Lived. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. p. 335. ISBN 978-1-55798-930-7.
  • Haidt, Jonathan (2006). The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-02802-0.
  • Haidt, Jonathan (2012). The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. Pantheon. ISBN 978-0-307-37790-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Reeves, Richard V.; Haidt, Jonathan (eds.) (2018). All Minus One: John Stuart Mill’s Ideas on Free Speech Illustrated. New York: Heterodox Academy. ISBN 9780692068311. OCLC 1038535520
  • Haidt, Jonathan; Lukianoff, Greg (2018). The Coddling of the American Mind. New York City: Penguin Press. ISBN 9780735224896. OCLC 1007552624.[34]

Selected articles

  • Haidt, J., Koller, S., and Dias, M. (1993). "Affect, culture, and morality, or is it wrong to eat your dog?", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 613–628.
  • Haidt, J . (2001). "The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment." Psychological Review. 108, 814–834.
  • Wheatley, T., and Haidt, J. (2005). "Hypnotic disgust makes moral judgments more severe." Psychological Science, 16, 780–784.
  • Haidt, J. (2007). "The new synthesis in moral psychology." Science, 316, 998–1002.
  • Rozin, P., Haidt, J., and McCauley, C. R. (2008). "Disgust." In M. Lewis, J. Haviland, and L. F. Barrett (Eds.) Handbook of Emotions, 3rd edition. (pp. 757–776). New York: Guilford Press.
  • Graham, J., Haidt, J., and Nosek, B. (2009). "Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 1029–1046.
  • Haidt, J., and Kesebir, S. (2010). "Morality." In S. Fiske, D. Gilbert, and G. Lindzey (eds.) Handbook of Social Psychology, 5th edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. pp. 797–832.
  • Iyer, R., Koleva, S. P., Graham, J., Ditto, P. H., and Haidt, J. (2012). "Understanding Libertarian morality: The psychological dispositions of self-identified libertarians." PLoS ONE 7:e42366 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0042366
  • Duarte, J. L., Crawford, J. T., Stern, S., Haidt, J., Jussim, L., & Tetlock, P. E. (2015). "Ideological diversity will improve psychological science." 38, e130, Behavioral and Brain Sciences. doi:10.1017/S0140525X14000430
  • Haidt, J., & Trevino, L. (2017). "Make business ethics a cumulative science." Nature Human Behavior, 1. doi:10.1038/s41562-016-0027

References

  1. ^ Stern.nyu.edu
  2. ^ Foreignpolicy.com
  3. ^ Prospectmagazine.co.uk
  4. ^ Profile, TED talks
  5. ^ Jonathan Haidt: He Knows Why We Fight, Holman W. Jenkins Jr., June 29, 2012, The Wall Street Journal
  6. ^ The psychology behind morality A discussion with Heidt describing his own outlook as being part of the Jewish culture
  7. ^ Schev.edu Archived May 1, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Ethicalsystems.org
  9. ^ Asteroidsclub.org, Haidt's third TED talk
  10. ^ Haidt, Jonathan (July 14, 2014). "Post-Partisan Social Psychology" (web page). Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  11. ^ Haidt, Jonathan. "Stories About Capitalism". Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  12. ^ Google Scholar
  13. ^ Haidt, Jonathan (October 16, 2012). "The Disgust Scale Home Page". Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  14. ^ DisgustScale.org
  15. ^ Algoe, Sara B, and Haidt, Jonathan. (2009). "Witnessing excellence in action: The 'other-praising' emotions of elevation, gratitude, and admiration." Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 105–127.
  16. ^ Haidt, Jonathan. (2003). "Elevation and the positive psychology of morality." In C. L. M. Keyes and J. Haidt (eds.), Flourishing: Positive Psychology and the Life Well-lived (pp. 275–289). Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
  17. ^ Jefferson, Thomas. (1975). "Letter to Robert Skipwith." In M. D. Peterson (ed.), The Portable Thomas Jefferson (pp. 349–351). New York: Penguin.
  18. ^ Silvers, J., and Haidt, J. (2008). "Moral elevation causes lactation." Emotion, 8, 291–295.
  19. ^ ElevationResearch.org
  20. ^ Haidt, Jonathan; Joseph, Craig (2004). "Intuitive ethics: How innately prepared intuitions generate culturally variable virtues". Daedalus. 133 (4): 55–66. doi:10.1162/0011526042365555. JSTOR 20027945.
  21. ^ Yourmorals.org
  22. ^ Graham, Jesse; Haidt, Jonathan; Nosek, Brian A. (2009). "Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 96 (5). American Psychological Association: 1029–1046. doi:10.1037/a0015141. ISSN 1939-1315. PMID 19379034.
  23. ^ McNerney, Samuel. "Jonathan Haidt and the Moral Matrix: Breaking Out of Our Righteous Minds". Scientific American (blogs). Retrieved February 2, 2013.
  24. ^ Haidt, Jonathan (October 7, 2012). "Reasons Matter (When Intuitions Don't Object)". The New York Times. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
  25. ^ Weiss, Bari (April 1, 2017). "Jonathan Haidt on The Cultural Roots of Campus Rage". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  26. ^ Haidt, Jon (December 1, 2012). "How Common Threats Can Make Common Political Ground". TED. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  27. ^ Haidt, Jon (December 12, 2015). "The Backstory of the AEI Brookings Poverty Report". Heterodox Academy. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  28. ^ Various Authors (December 3, 2015). "Opportunity, responsibility, and security: A consensus plan for reducing poverty and restoring the American dream". AEI. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  29. ^ Haidt, Jonathan (2005). The happiness hypothesis : finding modern truth in ancient wisdom. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0465028012. OCLC 61211244.
  30. ^ Edge.org
  31. ^ Themonkeycage.org
  32. ^ Truthdig.com Archived November 9, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  33. ^ Righteousmind.com
  34. ^ Aaronovitch, David (August 18, 2018). "Review: The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt – how we raised Generation Snowflake". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved August 24, 2018.

External links

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