Jonathan Haidt Popular Books

Jonathan Haidt Biography & Facts

Jonathan David Haidt (; born October 19, 1963) is an American social psychologist and author. He is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at the New York University Stern School of Business. His main areas of study are the psychology of morality and moral emotions. Haidt's main scientific contributions come from the psychological field of moral foundations theory, which attempts to explain the evolutionary origins of human moral reasoning on the basis of innate, gut feelings rather than logic and reason. The theory was later extended to explain the different moral reasoning and how they relate to political ideology, with different political orientations prioritizing different sets of morals. The research served as a foundation for future books on various topics. Haidt has written three books for general audiences: The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (2006) explores the relationship between ancient philosophies and modern science; The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (2012) examines how morality is shaped by emotion and intuition more than by reasoning, and why differing political groups have different notions of right and wrong; and The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (2018), co-written with Greg Lukianoff, explores the rising political polarization and changing culture on college campuses, and its effects on mental health. Biography Haidt is of Jewish descent (although an atheist as regards religion) and was born in New York City, being raised in Scarsdale, New York. His grandparents were immigrants from Russia and Poland. He received a BA in philosophy from Yale University in 1985, and an MA in psychology in 1988 and a PhD in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. He then studied cultural psychology at the University of Chicago as a postdoctoral fellow, supervised by Jonathan Baron and Alan Fiske (at the University of Pennsylvania), and cultural anthropologist Richard Shweder (University of Chicago). At Shweder's suggestion, he visited Orissa, India, to continue his research. In 1995, Haidt was hired as an assistant professor at the University of Virginia (UVA), where he worked until 2011, winning four awards for teaching, including a statewide award conferred by the Governor of Virginia.In 1999, Haidt became active in the new field of positive psychology, studying positive moral emotions. This work led to the publication of an edited volume, titled Flourishing, in 2003. In 2004, Haidt began to apply moral psychology to the study of politics, doing research on the psychological foundations of ideology. This work led to the publication in 2012 of The Righteous Mind. Haidt spent the 2007–2008 academic year at Princeton University as the Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching.In 2011, after a 16-year stint at UVA, Haidt moved to New York University's Stern School of Business as the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership. He made the move to New York City with his wife, Jayne, and 2 children. In 2013, he co-founded Ethical Systems, a non-profit collaboration dedicated to making academic research on ethics widely available to businesses. In 2015, Haidt co-founded Heterodox Academy, a non-profit organization that works to increase viewpoint diversity, mutual understanding, and productive disagreement. In 2018, Haidt and Richard Reeves co-edited an illustrated edition of John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, titled All Minus One: John Stuart Mill's Ideas on Free Speech Illustrated (illustrated by Dave Cicirelli). Haidt's current research applies moral psychology to business ethics. Research contributions Haidt's research on morality has led to publications and theoretical advances in four key areas. Moral disgust Together with Paul Rozin and Clark McCauley, Haidt developed the Disgust Scale, which has been widely used to measure individual differences in sensitivity to disgust. Haidt, McCauley and Rozin have written on the psychology of disgust as an emotion that began as a guardian of the mouth (against pathogens), but then expanded during biological and cultural evolution to become a guardian of the body more generally, and of the social and moral order. Moral elevation With Sara Algoe, Haidt argued that exposure to stories about moral beauty (the opposite of moral disgust) cause a common set of responses, including warm, loving feelings, calmness, and a desire to become a better person. Haidt called the emotion moral elevation, as a tribute to Thomas Jefferson, who had described the emotion in detail in a letter discussing the benefits of reading great literature. Feelings of moral elevation cause increases in milk produced during lactation in breastfeeding mothers, suggesting the involvement of the hormone oxytocin. Social intuitionism Haidt's principal line of research has been on the nature and mechanisms of moral judgment. In the 1990s, he developed the social intuitionist model, which posits that moral judgment is mostly based on automatic processes—moral intuitions—rather than on conscious reasoning. People engage in reasoning largely to find evidence to support their initial intuitions. Haidt's main paper on the social intuitionist model, "The Emotional Dog and its Rational Tail", has been cited over 7,800 times. Moral foundations theory In 2004, Haidt began to extend the social intuitionist model to identify what he considered to be the most important categories of moral intuition. The resulting moral foundations theory, co-developed with Craig Joseph and Jesse Graham, and based in part on the writings of Richard Shweder, was intended to explain cross-cultural differences in morality. The theory posited that there are at least five innate moral foundations, upon which cultures develop their various moralities, just as there are five innate taste receptors on the tongue, which cultures have used to create many different cuisines. The five values are: Care/harm Fairness/cheating Loyalty/betrayal Authority/subversion Sanctity/degradationHaidt and his collaborators asserted that the theory also works well to explain political differences. According to Haidt, liberals tend to endorse primarily the care and fairness foundations, whereas conservatives tend to endorse all foundations more equally. Later, in The Righteous Mind, a sixth foundation, Liberty/oppression, was presented. "The elephant and the rider" One widely cited metaphor throughout Haidt's books is that of the elephant and the rider. His observations of social intuitionism, the notion that intuitions come first and rationalization second, led to the metaphor described in his work. The rider represents consciously controlled processes, and the elephant represents automatic processes. The metaphor corresponds to Systems 1 and 2 described in Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow. This metaphor is used extensively in both Th.... Discover the Jonathan Haidt popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Jonathan Haidt books.

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  • The Coddling of the American Mind synopsis, comments

    The Coddling of the American Mind

    Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt

    Something is going wrong on many college campuses in the last few years. Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide are rising. Speakers are shouted down. Students and professors sa...

  • The Status Game synopsis, comments

    The Status Game

    Will Storr

    ‘Will Storr is one of our best journalists of ideas … The Status Game might be his best yet’ James Marriott, Books of the Year, The TimesWhat drives our political and moral beliefs...

  • The Ten Types of Human synopsis, comments

    The Ten Types of Human

    Dexter Dias

    The inspiration behind the hit podcast THE 100 TYPES OF HUMAN with DEXTER DIAS and BBC 5 Live host NIHAL ARTHANAYAKE'This book is the one. Think Sapiens and triple it.' Julia Hobs...

  • The Righteous Mind synopsis, comments

    The Righteous Mind

    Jonathan Haidt

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The acclaimed social psychologist challenges conventional thinking about morality, politics, and religion in a way that speaks to conservatives and liber...

  • How to Think synopsis, comments

    How to Think

    Alan Jacobs

    "Absolutely splendid . . . essential for understanding why there is so much bad thinking in political life right now." David Brooks, New York TimesHow to Think is a contrarian...

  • National Populism synopsis, comments

    National Populism

    Roger Eatwell & Matthew Goodwin

    A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARA crucial new guide to one of the most important and most dangerous phenomena of our time: the rise of populism in the WestAcross the West, there is...

  • Seeing Others synopsis, comments

    Seeing Others

    Michèle Lamont

    Acclaimed Harvard sociologist makes the case for reexamining what we value to prioritize recognitionthe quest for respectin an age that has been defined by growing inequality and t...

  • Values, Voice and Virtue synopsis, comments

    Values, Voice and Virtue

    Matthew Goodwin

    THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA Financial Times 2023 book to watch'Forceful ... The fundamental thrust of Goodwin's argument is right ... a new centre ground of British politics is be...

  • Head, Hand, Heart synopsis, comments

    Head, Hand, Heart

    David Goodhart

    A Financial Times Best Book of the Year 2020A TIMELY AND PROVOCATIVE ARGUMENT FROM LEADING POLITICAL ANALYST DAVID GOODHART ABOUT THE SEVERELY IMBALANCED DISTRIBUTION OF STATUS AND...

  • The Assault on American Excellence synopsis, comments

    The Assault on American Excellence

    Anthony T. Kronman

    “I want to call it a cry of the heart, but it’s more like a cry of the brain, a calm and erudite one.” Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street JournalThe former dean of Yale Law School argue...

  • Daylight Robbery synopsis, comments

    Daylight Robbery

    Dominic Frisby

    Death and taxes are our inevitable fate. We've been told this since the beginning of civilisation. But what if we stopped to question our antiquated system? Is it fair? And is it c...

  • The Power of Ethics synopsis, comments

    The Power of Ethics

    Susan Liautaud

    The essential guide for ethical decisionmaking in the 21st century, The Power of Ethics depicts “ethical decisionmaking not in a nebulous philosophical space, but at the point wher...

  • Crime and Punishment synopsis, comments

    Crime and Punishment

    Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky

    Hailed by Washington Post Book World as “the best [translation] currently available" when it was first published, this second edition of Crime and Punishment has been updated in ho...

  • Causing Death and Saving Lives synopsis, comments

    Causing Death and Saving Lives

    Jonathan Glover

    The moral problems of abortion, infanticide, suicide, euthanasia, capital punshiment, war and othe lifeordeath choices.

  • American Happiness Propaganda synopsis, comments

    American Happiness Propaganda

    Colin Bear

    The most famous books in the field of positive psychology have been published in the United States, repectively by authors living and working in the USA, like Tal BenShahar (`Happi...

  • The Comfort Crisis synopsis, comments

    The Comfort Crisis

    Michael Easter

    Discover the evolutionary mind and body benefits of living at the edges of your comfort zone and reconnecting with the wildfrom the New York Times bestselling author of Scarcity Br...

  • The Little Book of Big Ethical Questions synopsis, comments

    The Little Book of Big Ethical Questions

    Susan Liautaud

    Perfect for your next dinner party discussion, The Little Book of Big Ethical Questions presents some of today’s most thoughtprovoking ethical questions in a welcoming, easytodiscu...

  • Tech Panic synopsis, comments

    Tech Panic

    Robby Soave

    From awardwinning journalist and author of the “methodical, earnest, and insightful” (The Guardian) Panic Attack, an examination of recent kneejerk calls to regulate Big Tech from ...

  • A Joosr Guide to... The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt synopsis, comments

    A Joosr Guide to... The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt

    Joosr

    In today's fastpaced world, it's tough to find the time to read. But with Joosr guides, you can get the key insights from bestselling nonfiction titles in less than 20 minutes. Whe...