September 19, 2019

Jonathan Haidt Ph.D. has written a number of books two of which are worth reading The Happiness Hypothesis may be my go to self help book and The Righteous Mind is more controversial but worth digesting. Hugh Freitas has drawn a very creative and helpful cartoon to discuss some of the issues that polarize our ability to have dialogue between conservative and liberal groups (http://www.hugofreitas.com/2016/03/howtomakeaconservative.html). This link is worth studying. 

Haidt discusses disgust as an emotion that is more  unconscious and immediate leading us to think and behave almost automatically so that discussion and reasoning about one's conclusions are very difficult. Writers in this vein suggest that our disgust sensitivity may be ingrained, innate, and influenced by hereditary and therefore a characteristic of our personality less influenced by learning. Social intuitionism is an intuitive process in which we have moral judgments that then we rationalize when made conscious of them. The example in his book is as follows. Imagine a brother and sister who during their adolescence had sex with each other but then parted ways and lived their separate lives remaining friendly with each other. No harm befalls them. Most people imagining this scene have strong reactions that are visceral immediate and they cannot explain why. If you accept this then the moral reasoning literature may represent post hoc rationalizations for more basic fast mind processes. 

The cartoon  representation for The Righteous Mind does encapsulate the gulf in communication that can occur between the more conservative and more liberal groups. However, discussion and rational reasoning do play a part in overcoming some of the differences.   

I introduce Haidt and his colleagues work since I am still hopeful that such dialogue may proceed between some of my friends and acquaintances. In the Righteous Mind Haidt discusses his experiences in India and the prejudices and interactions between the caste systems still present. Group prejudices often are present in the more ingrained system where the us and the them have different qualities in which our disgust systems sometime play a role. Loyalty, tradition, versus change and innovation may lead to distrust each others motives and prevent dialogue and peaceful discussions.   

Leonard