Inter-Tribal Warfare
Unpacking our species' moral psychology can help us understand, and even empathize, with those on the other side of the political aisle. (Also - the podcast is out!)
With regard to the recent Forth of July holiday, I thought it would be a good time to explore the work of one of my favorite scholars, Jonathan Haidt, and the insights from his book “The Righteous Mind.”
“The Righteous Mind” is a deep dive into the origins of our homo sapien moral psychology. In it, Haidt offers readers a way to see our fellow citizens more clearly (and in our significantly fractured political landscape, we need this more than ever) and, as a result, offers some hope for developing understanding and even empathy for our fellow compatriots on the other side of the political aisle.
Haidt takes what he describes as our moral foundations and maps them onto why we gravitate toward certain ethical beliefs and political ideologies — explaining how these innate orientations profoundly influence our intuitions and shape our viewpoints as liberals and conservatives.
The starting point for this work is the recognition that the mind is not a blank slate. We come into the world with an inherited mental blueprint designed and ready to anticipate what we will encounter and how best to respond to those experiences —especially concerning what will most likely sustain our survival. (This is part of the emerging field of epigenetics for those interested in diving more into this topic).
Haidt uses this quote from Gary Marcus to articulate his point:
“The initial organization of the brain does not rely that much on experience … Nature provides a first draft, which experience then revises… ‘Built in’ does not mean unmalleable; it means organized in advance of experience.”
— Gary Marcus, The Birth of the Mind
As a way to understand what is included in this first draft of the mind, Haidt identifies the six moral foundations that underlie our intuitions:
Care
Fairness
Loyalty
Authority
Sanctity
Liberty
You can test your own moral foundations here if you like.
According to Haidt, these six modules comprise the moral mind, which are the building blocks of our “moral matrix” that influences our perceptions, judgments, and subsequent moral reasoning.
Here is a brief unpacking of the six foundations:
The Care/Harm Foundation: This foundation is centered around minimizing harm and promoting care for others. It includes values such as compassion, empathy, and kindness.
According to Haidt, the care foundation evolved in response to the adaptive challenge of caring for vulnerable offspring (human babies are one of the least independent mammals on the planet from birth through toddlerhood — which all my fellow parents certainly know to be true). Also, we are the only primate species in which fathers and mothers both care for offspring. The ramifications of this moral foundation extend in our culture outside of just raising our own offspring and are manifest in how we interact with our friends and communities.
The Fairness/Cheating Foundation focuses on justice, reciprocity, and fairness. It encompasses principles such as equal treatment, proportionality, and avoiding exploitation. This foundation has to do with fairness regarding what we contribute in relation to the spoils we receive.
According to Haidt, fairness is not just about equality but also about proportionality and the perception of just rewards. Meaning — if we receive more than our fair share based on our contributions, the system starts to break down. “We are driven by a strong desire to punish cheaters and freeloaders, even at a personal cost," writes Haidt.
The Loyalty/Betrayal Foundation originated from our existence as a primarily tribal species. It emphasizes the values of loyalty, group cooperation, and allegiance.
This is where feelings of patriotism, camaraderie, groupishness, and the willingness to make sacrifices for the whole originate.
Ultimately, the groups that are the most cohesive and most cooperative are more likely to succeed in conflicts with other groups, even if that means sacrificing individuals in service of the larger tribe.
The Authority/Subversion Foundation highlights the importance of respecting authority, hierarchy, and social order.
This foundation was formed through our long history as primates and hierarchical animals and involves values such as obedience, respect for traditions, and deference to legitimate authority figures. This is where our conceptions about leaders and followers come from.
As our groups get larger, respecting authority and embracing social order becomes crucial for maintaining societal stability and cooperation.
The Sanctity/Degradation Foundation relates to preserving purity, sanctity, and avoidance of disgust. It includes notions of cleanliness and concerns about contamination. Ultimately this foundation became intertwined with elevating ideas of sacredness and spirituality.
According to Haidt, this foundation evolved in our species due to our “omnivores dilemma” and navigating an environment full of pathogens — where contamination concerns could be life or death.
Eventually, this foundation was extended into the religious realm, where our reverence for sanctity began to play a significant role in moral judgments.
The Liberty/Oppression Foundation emphasizes the value of individual liberty, personal autonomy, and resistance against oppression or tyranny.
It involves concerns for freedom, autonomy, and the right to self-determination and is often in tension with the authority/subversion foundation. The value of individual liberty is a core aspect of human nature and manifests as resistance against oppression and can be wielded as a powerful force for change.
The tension between liberty and authority is fundamental to moral and political debates throughout history and continues today.
Moral Psychology and Political Leaning
According to Haidt, in terms of political leaning, liberals tend to base most of their political ideology around two moral foundations: care and fairness.
Whereas conservatives tend to have a broader range of moral concerns — conservative moral orientation often encompasses all six moral foundations.
These ways of thinking and viewing the world end up pushing us toward a particular political tribe — we end up calling ourselves Democrats or Republicans. But the trouble is when we engage the psychology of “teams” or become a “tribe,” it shuts down open-minded thinking.
Or, as Haidt puts it, “Morality binds and blinds.”
Thus, if we want to have a deeper understanding of the world and function well as a society, we need to be able to draw on and communicate with individuals who come to their understanding of the world from a different point of view and different moral foundations.
Earlier this week, I had the chance to visit with a friend who just returned from six weeks in France; as she reflected on her time abroad, we discussed the things that America does better and the things that France does better.
She was lamenting the state of political discourse in America — our absolute inability to come off of our polarized positions and how that polarization seems to get stronger and stronger each passing year.
I feel it too, and I am unsure what the answer is. But I do wonder if we took the time to investigate the why behind our positions and our opponents’ positions— perhaps somewhere in these innate moral foundations that are compelling us — we can see that this rhetoric and this polarization at a deep level is about survival.
The Podcast Is Out!
Maybe another good starting place can be found somewhere in these conversations and interviews — my good friend Kelley and I have been working on a podcast for the last few months. The show is an invitation to deep conversations about American cultural trends, psychology, technology, and what any of it has to do with religion.
We are finally releasing some of the first episodes of the show. If you want to follow our journey, you can do so here (it is also available on any podcast app you use!):
We're just getting started... so please send us any thoughts or show suggestions to atheist@stlpodcasts.com!
Keep looking for connection,
