Books The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion  by Jonathan Haidt (Author)

"The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion" by Jonathan Haidt explores the psychological underpinnings of morality and explains why people with good intentions often have deeply conflicting political and religious views.

The book is structured in three parts:

Intuitions Come First, Strategic Reasoning Second: Haidt argues that moral judgments stem primarily from intuitive feelings rather than deliberate reasoning. People use reason mostly to justify their gut reactions. He uses the metaphor of the mind as an elephant (intuition) ridden by a small rider (reason).

There's More to Morality than Harm and Fairness: Haidt introduces Moral Foundations Theory, which identifies six core moral values that shape human ethics: care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, sanctity/degradation, and liberty/oppression. Different political groups emphasize these foundations differently, explaining ideological divides; for example, liberals focus mostly on care and fairness, while conservatives value all six to varying degrees.

Morality Binds and Blinds: Humans are "groupish" creatures who derive a sense of identity and purpose from belonging to groups. This group loyalty fosters social cohesion but also blinds people to the perspectives of others, fueling political and religious polarization. Haidt explores the idea of a "hive switch" that can activate collective unity for both good and ill.