Johnathan Haidt’s Ted Talk, “The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives”, tackles the problem of polarization in the world in a very interesting way. Haidt looks at the ideology of liberals and conservatives through the lens of morality. In doing so he is able to define it by five factors care/harm, fairness/reciprocity, group/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity. He finds they are about equal in care and fairness with liberals valuing it a bit more. Conservatives are way higher then liberals on the other three factors. Haidt concludes in his Ted talk that all of these morals were necessary, and rather than treating them like two teams who should step outside the side your side dynamic to accomplish more together. The quiz
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It however, does require a good amount of connection in order to connect the different topics. The first place that the connection starts is the politics of anger/aversion. Aversion in the “Affective Intelligence Theory” of Mackuen makes people less likely to pay attention, and more likely to just side with the standard routines. This is important when dealing with polarization because of what we see with the PEW article “Partisanship and political animosity in 2016.”, ““For the first time in surveys dating to 1992, majorities in both parties express not just unfavorable but very unfavorable views of the other party. And today, sizable shares of both Democrats and Republicans say the other party stirs feelings of not just frustration, but fear and anger.”(PEW). It seems like the disgust and fear comes from what is perceived as a lack of shared values/ belief systems where beliefs are, “...defined as associations people create between an object and its attributes… When beliefs are clustered together it is called a belief system.” (IPP, 162) and values as something close to belief but with “an ideal component” (IPP, 162). Both these belief systems and values are very similar to the morality factors/ idea of morality that Haidt presents in the Ted talk. However, what Johnathan Haidt is saying in his Ted Talk is that even …show more content…
One of the most noteworthy thing is that the test of hoe morals aligned with ideology matched up over multiple cultures. Another interesting point is that the factors created clear conservative and liberal divide. Overall the data seems believable because it seems to explain the inherent difference between the groups, and offers an explanation for what may be causing polarization in the U.S. This article also has implications for one of our most important question, how to compromise and help reverse the harm that extreme polarization has done to our government. It shows that polarization can be overcome, and that if you treat it as a project where everyone’s talents can be used, rather than a game to win, more can be
It however, does require a good amount of connection in order to connect the different topics. The first place that the connection starts is the politics of anger/aversion. Aversion in the “Affective Intelligence Theory” of Mackuen makes people less likely to pay attention, and more likely to just side with the standard routines. This is important when dealing with polarization because of what we see with the PEW article “Partisanship and political animosity in 2016.”, ““For the first time in surveys dating to 1992, majorities in both parties express not just unfavorable but very unfavorable views of the other party. And today, sizable shares of both Democrats and Republicans say the other party stirs feelings of not just frustration, but fear and anger.”(PEW). It seems like the disgust and fear comes from what is perceived as a lack of shared values/ belief systems where beliefs are, “...defined as associations people create between an object and its attributes… When beliefs are clustered together it is called a belief system.” (IPP, 162) and values as something close to belief but with “an ideal component” (IPP, 162). Both these belief systems and values are very similar to the morality factors/ idea of morality that Haidt presents in the Ted talk. However, what Johnathan Haidt is saying in his Ted Talk is that even …show more content…
One of the most noteworthy thing is that the test of hoe morals aligned with ideology matched up over multiple cultures. Another interesting point is that the factors created clear conservative and liberal divide. Overall the data seems believable because it seems to explain the inherent difference between the groups, and offers an explanation for what may be causing polarization in the U.S. This article also has implications for one of our most important question, how to compromise and help reverse the harm that extreme polarization has done to our government. It shows that polarization can be overcome, and that if you treat it as a project where everyone’s talents can be used, rather than a game to win, more can be