TED: Morality
Some things I heard in the TED lecture called ‘Jonathan Haidt on the moral roots of liberals and conservatives.’ Here are my notes:
Liberalness: openness, change,
Conservativeness: stability, status quo
We all are born with a preparedness to learn the Five Foundations Of Morality:
Harm/Care L 4.9 / C 3.4
Fairness/Reciprocity L 4.5 / C 2.9
Ingroup/Loyality L 2.0 / C 3.1
Authority/Respect L 2.1 / C 3.3
Purity/Sanctity L 1.7 / C 3.1
The numbers on the right are approximately where they fall on the graph of US attitudes as expressed on a survey JH did. Thirty thousand people have taken the online survey already.
In his graph, they all came in this order, the first two being fairly high. Liberals holding the last three fairly low, but conservatives holding those three much closer to the first two. Even fairness, only at the far right, being the lowest.
Food issues fall into Purity/Sanctity
There was a game where people could give money and on each round they can give money into a common pot. At first people average 50%, but it goes down. Later, if they can punish others who don’t, they give a lot more. It’s not enough to rely on good motives, some punishment, even if it’s only shame and gossip, to bring people in large groups, to co-operate. [Ted - I wonder if "punishment" would be more accurately labeled 'consequences,' which, of course can be good as well as bad. Looking at the incentives, consciously created and unpredicted, in any system is very important.]
Successful societies use all tools in the box.
