This month I am featuring The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt, and it couldn’t be more timely. I can almost guarantee that especially lately, you disagree with someone you care about when it comes to politics, religion, or COVID protocols like masking or vaccines.
Haidt walks the reader through the psychology of how intelligent, thoughtful, and caring individuals can come to completely opposite conclusions about polarizing issues and how both can be coming from a place of goodness and clearheaded thinking.
Some of my favorite topics in the book include discussions about the reasons why humans evolved to have morals, and why research on morality is sometimes not representative of all of humanity due to the WEIRD (western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic) sample groups.
Haidt also talks about the different foundations for morality: care/harm, fairness, proportionality, loyalty, authority, and purity and how conservatives and liberals differ. If you want to get a sense of your own morals and what is important to you, take the quiz at https://yourmorals.org/
This is a book that deserves more than one read or listen through to get all of the content but it’s a great place to start if you’re looking to develop more empathy and understanding towards those with whom you differ. Check it out soon!