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utsfl:classroom:seminars:pbh310 [2024/03/27 11:04] – refactored into three sections and added a final quote on empathy and bridging the divide balleyneutsfl:classroom:seminars:pbh310 [2025/02/12 16:12] (current) – [Part 2: Six Taste Receptors] fixed a typo balleyne
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 For a guide through the field of moral psychology, I'm going to turn to Jonathan Haidt - whose name you'll see all over the Wikipedia article on [[wp>Moral Psychology]] - and his landmark 2012 book //The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion,// which draws on 25 years of groundbreaking research and which, I think, is full of wisdom for pro-life activists as a sort of textbook for a 300-level course in heart apologetics. For a guide through the field of moral psychology, I'm going to turn to Jonathan Haidt - whose name you'll see all over the Wikipedia article on [[wp>Moral Psychology]] - and his landmark 2012 book //The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion,// which draws on 25 years of groundbreaking research and which, I think, is full of wisdom for pro-life activists as a sort of textbook for a 300-level course in heart apologetics.
  
-(I first encountered Jonathan Haidt's concepts from the book in late 2020, in the midst of pandemic and 2020 presidential election debates and conspiracy thinking, and then my friend Katie bought me the book a year later at the end of 2021, and I read it slowly in 2022, 2023, and early 2024. I knew there were deep insights into heart apologetics from my first encounter, but as I worked my way through the book, I became more and more convinced that it would be helpful to run a seminar on this.)+(Share some of my 2020-2024 journey in thinking about this.)
  
 I'm going to pull out the core insights from Haidt's work that apply to pro-life activism, and leave aside philosophical bones to pick and worldview differences. We'll go through Jonathan Haidt's three principles of moral psychology, and apply them to pro-life activism: The Elephant and the Rider, the Six Taste Receptors, and the Hive Switch. I'm going to pull out the core insights from Haidt's work that apply to pro-life activism, and leave aside philosophical bones to pick and worldview differences. We'll go through Jonathan Haidt's three principles of moral psychology, and apply them to pro-life activism: The Elephant and the Rider, the Six Taste Receptors, and the Hive Switch.
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 {{youtube>24adApYh0yc}} {{youtube>24adApYh0yc}}
  
-Jonathon Haidt illustrates this with a personal example:+Jonathan Haidt illustrates this with a personal example:
 > On February 3, 2007, shortly before lunch, I discovered that I was a chronic liar. I was at home, writing a review article on moral psychology, when my wife, Jayne, walked by my desk. In passing, she asked me not to leave dirty dishes on the counter where she prepared our baby's food. Her request was polite but its tone added a postscript: "As I have asked you a hundred times before." > On February 3, 2007, shortly before lunch, I discovered that I was a chronic liar. I was at home, writing a review article on moral psychology, when my wife, Jayne, walked by my desk. In passing, she asked me not to leave dirty dishes on the counter where she prepared our baby's food. Her request was polite but its tone added a postscript: "As I have asked you a hundred times before."
 > >
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 It's the **moral flash** I want you to recognize, your moral intuitions. This is your elephant. It's the **moral flash** I want you to recognize, your moral intuitions. This is your elephant.
  
-Think about your own experience, talking to other people, but more importantly, reflect on yourself and your own moral psychology. What happens when you hear these words: vaccines, evolution, climate change, transgenderism, abortion, condoms, Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau, COVID-19, immigration, guns. What I want to to feel is the //elephant// - that strong affective response, the "gut feeling."+Think about your own experience, talking to other people, but more importantly, reflect on yourself and your own moral psychology. What happens when you hear these words: vaccines, evolution, climate change, transgenderism, abortion, condoms, Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau, COVID-19, immigration, guns. What I want you to feel is the //elephant// - that strong affective response, the "gut feeling."
  
 In study after study, Haidt finds that moral judgment is far from a purely cerebral affair in which we're consciously reasoning (the rider), but actually "moral judgment is mostly done by the elephant." For example, they hooked people up to fMRI scanners and presented them with trolley problem type moral dilemmas, and it was the emotional processing part of the brain that immediately lit up //and// that corresponded with the moral judgments made - not the conscious, cerebral logical part of the brain. In study after study, Haidt finds that moral judgment is far from a purely cerebral affair in which we're consciously reasoning (the rider), but actually "moral judgment is mostly done by the elephant." For example, they hooked people up to fMRI scanners and presented them with trolley problem type moral dilemmas, and it was the emotional processing part of the brain that immediately lit up //and// that corresponded with the moral judgments made - not the conscious, cerebral logical part of the brain.
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 :!: Haidt talks about the application of the social intuitionist model for moral persuasion: :!: Haidt talks about the application of the social intuitionist model for moral persuasion:
-> The social intuitionist model offers an explanation of why moral and political arguments are so frustrating: _Moral reasons are the tail wagged by the intuitive dog._ A dog's tail wags to communicate. You can't make a dog happy by forcibly wagging its tail. And you can't change people's minds by utterly refuting their arguments. [...] If you want to change people's minds, you've got to talk to their elephants. You've got to use links 3 and 4 of the social intuitionist model to elicit new intuitions, not new rationales.+> The social intuitionist model offers an explanation of why moral and political arguments are so frustrating: //Moral reasons are the tail wagged by the intuitive dog.// A dog's tail wags to communicate. You can't make a dog happy by forcibly wagging its tail. And you can't change people's minds by utterly refuting their arguments. [...] If you want to change people's minds, you've got to talk to their elephants. You've got to use links 3 and 4 of the social intuitionist model to elicit new intuitions, not new rationales.
  
 **Therefore, if you want to change someone's mind about a moral or political issue, //talk to the elephant first.// If you ask people to believe something that violates their intuitions, they will devote their efforts to finding an escape hatch - a reason to doubt your argument or conclusion. They will almost always succeed.** **Therefore, if you want to change someone's mind about a moral or political issue, //talk to the elephant first.// If you ask people to believe something that violates their intuitions, they will devote their efforts to finding an escape hatch - a reason to doubt your argument or conclusion. They will almost always succeed.**
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 The first principle in moral psychology is that "intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second" - the elephant and the rider. Now, we'll take a look at the second principle to better understand other people, and the third principle for guidance on how to be effective at reaching them. The first principle in moral psychology is that "intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second" - the elephant and the rider. Now, we'll take a look at the second principle to better understand other people, and the third principle for guidance on how to be effective at reaching them.
  
-<del>(Jonathon Haidt is writing as a secular liberal who went on a journey from breaking out of the matrix, becoming more aware of his own biases, and broadening his understanding of moral psychology to better understand and appreciate people with different ideological perspectives. The journey for most of us is a bit of the reverse, so I won't be following exactly his journey in the book, but the lessons he learned applied in reverse.(</del>+<del>(Jonathan Haidt is writing as a secular liberal who went on a journey from breaking out of the matrix, becoming more aware of his own biases, and broadening his understanding of moral psychology to better understand and appreciate people with different ideological perspectives. The journey for most of us is a bit of the reverse, so I won't be following exactly his journey in the book, but the lessons he learned applied in reverse.)</del>
  
 ==== Beyond WEIRD Morality ==== ==== Beyond WEIRD Morality ====
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   * a rock concert   * a rock concert
   * a meaningful and challenging experience that builds community (like a summer internship or tour)   * a meaningful and challenging experience that builds community (like a summer internship or tour)
 +
 +FIXME example: https://www.instagram.com/p/C3x_fI_s4SV/
  
 Collective ritual - Haidt says that human beings are //conditional hive creatures.// We exist on an individual level, but also as part of the larger society, as part of a community. Collective ritual - Haidt says that human beings are //conditional hive creatures.// We exist on an individual level, but also as part of the larger society, as part of a community.
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   * Ways to nudge everyone's "hive switch" sliders a bit: (p. 277)   * Ways to nudge everyone's "hive switch" sliders a bit: (p. 277)
     * **Increase similarity, not diversity.** [connect with religious idea bundling] To make a human hive, you want to make everyone feel like a family. So don't call attention to racial and ethnic differences; make them less relevant by ramping up similarity and celebrating the group's shared values and common identity.     * **Increase similarity, not diversity.** [connect with religious idea bundling] To make a human hive, you want to make everyone feel like a family. So don't call attention to racial and ethnic differences; make them less relevant by ramping up similarity and celebrating the group's shared values and common identity.
-    * **Exploit synchrony:** People who move together are saying, "We are one, we are a team; just look how perfectly we are able to do that Tomasello shared-intention thing." Japanese corporations such as Toyota begin their days with synchronous companywide exercises. Groups prepare for battle - in war and sports - with group chants and ritualized movements. ([Example given of rugby haka](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiKFYTFJ_kw)) If you ask people to sing a song together, or to march in step, or just to tap out some beats together on a table, it makes them trust each other more and be more willing to help each other out, in part because it makes people feel more similar to each other. If it's too creepy to ask your employees or fellow group members to do synchronized calisthenics, perhaps you can just try to have more parties with dancing or karaoke. **Synchrony builds trust.**+    * **Exploit synchrony:** People who move together are saying, "We are one, we are a team; just look how perfectly we are able to do that Tomasello shared-intention thing." Japanese corporations such as Toyota begin their days with synchronous companywide exercises. Groups prepare for battle - in war and sports - with group chants and ritualized movements. ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiKFYTFJ_kw|Example given of rugby haka]]) If you ask people to sing a song together, or to march in step, or just to tap out some beats together on a table, it makes them trust each other more and be more willing to help each other out, in part because it makes people feel more similar to each other. If it's too creepy to ask your employees or fellow group members to do synchronized calisthenics, perhaps you can just try to have more parties with dancing or karaoke. **Synchrony builds trust.**
     * **Create healthy competition among teams, not individuals.** As McNeill said, soldiers don't risk their lives for their country or for the army; they do so for their buddies in the same squad or platoon. Studies show that intergroup competition increases love of the in-group far more than it increases dislike of the out-group. Intergroup competitions, such as friendly rivalries between corporate divisions, or intramural sports competitions, should have a net positive effect on hivishness and social capital. But pitting individuals against each other in a competition for scarce resources (such as bonuses) will destroy hivishness, trust, and morale.     * **Create healthy competition among teams, not individuals.** As McNeill said, soldiers don't risk their lives for their country or for the army; they do so for their buddies in the same squad or platoon. Studies show that intergroup competition increases love of the in-group far more than it increases dislike of the out-group. Intergroup competitions, such as friendly rivalries between corporate divisions, or intramural sports competitions, should have a net positive effect on hivishness and social capital. But pitting individuals against each other in a competition for scarce resources (such as bonuses) will destroy hivishness, trust, and morale.