I read his book “The Righteous Mind” and it’s a fantastic book. It covers all this and more in great depth. One of the most interesting books I’ve read. It even got me to realize how much we attempt to rationalize and justify everything in our life as a defense, and it helped me to stop doing that.

This is amazing. I felt both attacked and validated multiple times while watching this and yet I want to debate and talk more about this. I think it's inspiring me, more than most things have in a long time. I feel like I have more research to do now. Thank you.

This is great. Just ordered two of his books. Wish I’d seen this a lot sooner. Much needed today in 2022

This is brilliant! I can’t thank you enough for putting this reality out here for all to learn from and if your truly open minded, you will! ✌🏼

Excellent, Jonathan! I look forward to seeing and hearing more from you. This provides a foundation for the common understanding we need to achieve to Foster the cooperation we need, not only between "liberals" and "conservatives" (it seems to me that the "powers-that-be" use these labels or distinctions to keep us divided and conquered; I'm an interdependent myself), but between and among all individuals and groups. Let's listen to each other, and have peace and cooperation in the World - what do you think??

Wow. We need this more today than any day in US history. What a beautiful summation of what it is to be an American, I am looking at my Canadian Familia as well, and what we need to keep a healthy society in which our children can grow and prosper. Love one another people. We all bring strengths to the table. Keep the peace.

Cool concept. I've been trying to start learning more about the conservative point of view, and I think this finally gives me a bit of a starting point. It's hard because a lot of people who lean on the right side are SO different, that it takes a lot of work for me to try to understand their side. There are some parts where I'm simply left baffled and confused, but I still try. It also doesn't help that it feels like current political representatives are rather extreme to one side or the other, leaving me to wander in search of people who are level-headed and open to considering different points of view.

I assumed responsibility for an unplanned child when I was 22 years old. It was not easy. At the time I was much more liberal than I am today. Becoming a parent, and having to think of the interests of my daughter, forced me to live my way into a new way of thinking instead of thinking my way into a new way of living. Thanks for reading.

This is so informative and well explained, I sincerely hope to be half the professor he is one day.

Brilliant thing to reflect on here in 2022. I consider myself moderate with a desire for new experiences and appreciate values, morality, some traditions. I think this talk gets missed by some in that crowd but the fact that we’re not nearly as witty or as considerate as we think we are is incredible to recognize and reflect on. The fairness and purity chart literally lands the point with no additional effort. You can’t be an arbiter of fairness and prosperity and then ignore what it took to put you in a position to offer that. You have to drive balance and know where to lean to keep the ship afloat and let the vocal minority that can’t handle with it deal with it.

If you start from a place of curiosity and possibly empathy when you are in the presence of someone who has differing views, you are much more likely to be open to exploring where they got their ideas/beliefs from. Most people in a conversation are thinking about a response when they should be listening to the person speaking. It takes skill and practice, something I am certainly working on.

I agree with the concepts of balance and the issues with the righteous mind. Our main pursuit as human beings should be the truth no matter how much it may offend our own bias and political dogma. The only problem is that we now try and manipulate truth and direct narratives. A clear sign that people do not want to face the faults in their own thinking. I consider myself quite open minded yet I'm a conservative in most political situations. I try my best to challenge my own ideas about things, but am pretty pragmatic in my approach to solving problems. Utilitarianism, logic, math, science, if it all adds sort of thinking. But I have a liberal artistic side that enjoys being fascinated by novel stimulus, especially when it comes to music. Overall great Ted Talk, and then again Ted needs to do a better job sometimes at balancing their own perspectives and presenters.

One of the best TED Talks I've ever seen. It's like a key that we can use, if we will, to heal the rift that we've all created between ourselves as we've doubled down into tribalism and division.

Jonathan Haidt is more relevant than ever; he has much to say and I hope to hear more from him in the future.

I am not articulate enough to give a highly valued comment, except to say that I appreciate this message, especially now, more than ever. Bumping in hopes to bring more exposure to this message.

Excellent talk. Beware of anyone who - knowingly or unwittingly - seeks to polarise society.

as someone who is morally very conservative, I appreciate the respectful analysis of conservative thinking. Nice job!

This was very liberating, especially in these times of extreme political dualism, people are generalizing way too much these days based on certain group identity, which is scary in it's own way

Be the change you want to make in others. No one has “talked” me into their side. Action speaks louder than words. I have long since come to believe that people are not what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.

Intriguing, and I'm so glad this has been spoken to, but its simplistic in terms of just the beginning. As a psychotherapist I see not just an equalizer of morality, but I see where people are morally underdeveloped, or worst, their morality is twisted pathologically due to damaged empathy, inherited sadism, etc. I'm going to check out more of this guy's stuff and see what he's come up with in the past 8 years.

Thank you so much for this. I recognize myself very much on the scale you showed: pretty close to the extreme right, but I'm not at all the person people would expect me to be. Because of my openness and friendliness people are shocked by my political and social leanings, but I've always been entranced by different people/cultures... LOL and the one time I went to Applebee's (not knowing what I was getting into) will def be the last time LOL.

I have never watched a bad Ted Talk. That being said, this was far and away the absolute best and most mind blowing of them. I for one am really going to give this my all, to try and become a better Grinch.

This has actually helped me understand something about myself. I've always wondered why I have a more conservative view in a seemingly ever progressive world. It would be because I prize loyalty above almost all else. Loyalty to a person, people, those you care about.

Jonathan Haidt deserves the Nobel peace prize for this.

superb TED talk. As a liberal, I feel inspired to be more open-minded to conservatives.

Thank you to anyone here trying to be able to empathize and understanding the 'other' side better.

The moral roots ... 1. Harm/ Care 2. Fairness/ Reciprocity 3. Ingroup/ Loyalty 4. Authority/ Respect 5. Purity/ Sanctity

Tribal ways of life have allowed us to make amazing things, but have also created a never ending perpetual cycle of violence towards our own. As John said you have to step out of your moral matrix in order to see what's truly right, and truly wrong without the confines of what your told.

This was one of those insanely inspiring ted talks

Good way to present the ideas in a way that would be more likely to be received well by a TED audience. I really appreciate his book Righteous Minds, but wonder if the average TED attendee might find it off-putting.

Really great insights. Thought provoking. Worthy of a second and third viewing and definitely to share.

I've been saying for a long time, if we want to get through to the "other side" we have to understand them. We can want to fight and think they're wrong but that only leads to destruction, overall. There are limited times when a fight is what's right for our survival, but overall there needs to be an understanding of the underlying psychology. I bet you would find that the small percentage of the rabid far left have a similar psychology to conservatives as well. We can stand on our soap box and burn it all down or we can really study the issue and figure out how to work together. But I think there are some big money behind the scenes players (Koch brothers, Russia, China, oil companies, etc) trying to do the exact opposite of that. Playing up the demonization of the "other" to sow chaos and eventual destruction of at least America. And though I think this is more just because they don't care, the world. We've got psychopaths running the circus.

The leading division in the world, this tribalism on social media, specially regarding politics, is very scary and has caused me great distress for personal reasons as well. I believe we will be able to find common ground with most people, and there are only a few who are so far off that we can't talk to them. We all do better when we make space for each other's opinions. I hope the world changes for the better.

If you want to enact change in your world, enact change in your community. Do this by hearing and understanding the challenges people in your community face. Once you understand those challenges, help to solve them. Everyone has challenges, and in my experience everyone will accept help. When you’ve helped someone, and they have accepted your help, regardless of their moral values, you will have built a bridge between yourselves and them. And you will have found someone to help you enact change in your community, and in doing so, in some small part enacted change in your world.

Moral Foundations Theory has been amazingly helpful for understanding and interacting with people at the other end of the spectrum. It seems crazy to me that people over there have the values they do, but after learning about it, at least things make sense. It has also been really helpful reading other studies on ideologically-linked traits, and reading works by the founders of those ideologies. Gotta say though... although the studies paint a clear picture of how and why the world's problems happened, that picture isn't pretty. It's largely a tale of empiricism and empathy driving progress forward against reactionaries with a tribal mindset, and when the latter gain power, things get reeeeeal bad.

I have taken multiple personality tests and I always test extremely high in openness to experience, but I have always leaned quite conservative. Its probably because I was raised in a religious household and have come to accept and stick to those values. Purity is probably actually the thing I value most. Nonetheless, I believe that there is a balance between the parties that must be achieved. This is why I think our government system is incredible. The president is in office for 4 to 8 years, not 20 years or life. This allows the country to rapidly change and adapt to new circumstances. We also have 3 branches that have checks and balances and oftentimes the branches are controlled by different parties. What is fascinating is that if you look at the history of the presidents it regularly switches from republican to democrat presidents fairly regularly.

Crazy how this talk applies more today, than it did back in 2012.

I hoped he will cover, along this topic, how to detach your beliefs of the world from your sense of self. In other words when you find undisputed facts about something that contradicts what you believed it to be, it doesn't make you less of a person or a fraud because you updated that belief. That is not easy at all.

Go through the video the second time after a couple month, Prof. Jonathan Hadit is really a titan among the modern scholars.

This talk was in Feb 2008. It was, in my opinion, the peak of TED Talks. He punked them for being in danger of becoming an ideological echo chamber in such a clever way that they laughed and applauded him for it. I mean, he went in on them... "... if you understand this trait, you could understand why anybody would eat at Applebee's, but not anybody that you know." - hahahhahahha - Jon: "this trait also tells us a lot about politics." -- and then gets them to self-identify as partisans, before explaining to them why this is a problem. In early 2008. Not New Years Eve 2012.

This is interesting that we are talking about this as liberal vs. conservative when it is really about right brain dominance vs. left brain dominance. We are hard wired this way and there are also those who are both left and right brained. This is what makes the world work because god intended to have two types of people on earth who would challenge each other and a third group who would help them figure out how to get along. We need to embrace each group as essential to the healthy development of the human race using the middle group as an arbitrator to help them work things out together. We need to quit forcing a division of the groups and instead foster a means to help them work together for the best outcomes for everyone.

Great talk. I don't know who said it originally, but I love the saying: "A bird needs two wings to fly".

Haidt’s books are excellent descriptions of how political dichotomies like the current one could emerge. I couldn’t recommend them enough to people who are interested in solutions more than being ‘right’.

A "passionate commitment to the truth" is needed. Yes indeed by all parties.

Its a beautiful notion of harmony, cooperation, and understanding. Its also humbling that peoples trait openess is biological, and therefore an inherent quality of who they are. Which means that being liberal or conservative is not a moral failing, and to assert so is simply an anti-human notion. Doesnt mean that people or ideas on each tribe cant be malelvolent, but that proples natural inclinations and ways of understanding arent malelovent themselves. Hooray for people like Heidt who seek understanding, balance, and harmony.

I’ve noticed that even those that call themselves “political centrists” speak about “us vs them” as Prof Heidt does in this talk.

I would love to hear an update on this based on reactions to covid lockdowns between parties and conspiracy theorists

That part about "yin and yang" really resonated with me. I think about my place in the grand social-political world often and I've come to the conclusion many times that both sides almost need each other, and that either side with too much power would cause less favorable consequences for society as a whole. The thing is though, I'm a political moderate that both likes/dislikes issues on both sides, so my bias here is obvious. Also, I'll admit that moderates don't really do much for the human species on any part of the spectrum, whereas true progressives want to progress humanity into a brave new future, and conservatives want to retreat back into yesteryear, both sides are, in effect, moving, one in one direction, and one in the other. Moderates are an anomaly of the universe, always stationary, which as anyone who knows anything about physics will state, is not "natural". Thus moderates are stale, not moving in either direction, and as a moderate, I vex over this observation often. The question is, where do I go from here?

This may actually be one of the best TED videos I’ve ever seen. It explains the psychology of liberalism and conservatism so well.

I like his ending statement about "a passionate commitment to the truth" - I wonder if he still would make that comment 10 years later when statements like "my truth" are so common.

As a conservative I .....*Gets cancelled* But for real, this was an excellent video and I think that understanding how we work is a great way to solve our problems.

Such a brilliant talk

3:00 *"This a bit of a problem because If our goal is under our world, to seek a deeper understanding of our world our general lack of moral diversity here is going to make it harder. Because when people all share values, when people all share morals they become a team. And once you engage in psychology of teams it shuts down open-minded thinking."*

Relevant a decade later! Ultimately, humanity loses when either extreme takes over. You must have balance. You must listen and think about what is being said. You must be willing and be capable of compromise. "My way or the highway" is a great way to make people stop listening to you. If you aren't willing to understand why someone thinks the way they do and compare those reasons against your own, perhaps even evaluate if you've been wrong all along, then you've got some personal growing to do. A team is best when it's made up of people with different skills. If you haven't come to that realization after all the decades of exposure to diverse teams and crews and squads and friend groups present in all our favorite media, fictional or otherwise (Harry Potter, Star Trek, Star Wars, the A-Team, Mission Impossible, every sports team ever etc., etc.), then I can't help you.

Great video. I agree with these opinions and have alot of respect for Mr Haidt. What happens when one political group believes the other needs to be extinguished though? Being understanding, conciliatory and compassionate to one-another is a noble concept, but when your moral group is endangered, how should they respond?

One of the most important topics and observations we should be pondering about today, in my opinion. And by we I mean all humans, not just some country or group.

I used to think of myself as a liberal and now I think I'm leaning republican. The thing is, I never really changed my morals. I just thought "republican means immoral and I'm not immoral". And I think that what happens a lot of the time is that people use "liberal" as a placeholder, especially where I'm from. And it takes a while to realize that both left wing and right wing people are moral beings, and that you might not actually be liberal.

Hands down the best and most interesting Ted talk I have ever heard

This is a difficult concept to wrap my head around, because I immediately go to the extremes. On one end are puppies. Puppies = good. On the other end are serial killers. Serial killers = bad. I think I understand the serial killer's point of view, but I immediately reject it. My justice/fairness morality overwhelms everything else in this case. If we go to more mainstream issues, it's difficult not to view opposing opinions as simply wrong. It's something I'm trying to work on.

Interesting to consider that the foundation of our morality might find its own balance. For example, if society replaces fairness/reciprocity with greed/selfishness then another moral foundation might become altered in proportion to the inequity; in-group/loyalty, our sense of tribalism, might become exaggerated. Society has experienced a large economic division and “tribalism” in recent decades, a noticeable departure from the decades that preceded it.

Love what Jonathon Haidt is doing. Keep it going!

Very interesting talk. When truth is ambiguous, I would say a certain level of sensitivity to perspectivism is key but the world seems to be favoring the other direction lately. Many politicians stoke flames of fear and many social commentators underhandedly nurture devisiveness. Sometimes I wonder how coordinated a supposed 'social engineering' is on social media. For example, I was just reading about the "Try Guys" scandal and I saw six seperate articles using the term "Wife Guy" in a negative context. It reminds me of that recently famous critique of dozens of local conservative news stations all repeating a certain script verbatim, suggesting the message was passed down from above. No doubt. Take the "Try Guys" example though: Correct me if I'm wrong but this seems like it may favor a liberal audience- especially the one's talking on the scandal under a social philosophical lens. In a way, I see fingerprints of a common message passed from above again and it's rather uncanny. Is this hierarchy of power distribution and narrative setting bipartisan? Why it matters? I can see how a backlash to a supposed "Wife Guy"- something I only recently found out existed- could lead to a broader stigma towards any individual who would otherwise be described as a supportive spouse. With that scandal and a stereotype being created by the talking heads, certain members of society may be more inclined to have disdain for traditional families, saying those are the type who are often cheating hypocrites; only nominally proponents for "classic values" and not a good model for happiness. No doubt; happiness is subjective but I just don't trust the intent of supposedly independent sources repeating the same phrases verbatim...within the same week! I think direct experience in 'that which is other' and perspectivism is key. I think this talk was really good but what if there's 'more in the batter' than just a misunderstanding of philosophical differences? Where do we go in this supposed hyperreality? Rant over.

Enjoyed thoroughly!

"Humans are born with 100% of our faculties on board all operative and fully functioning. We are all born geniuses." -- Buckminster Fuller

This needs to be broadcasted on all MSM 24/7 until November 3rd

I enjoyed the total video - I am cross spectrum but largely conservative and I was in awe of the statue of David so I'm not so sure of the broad strokes here - but he has a good message.

I'm a big fan of Jonathan Haidt's work. To the conservatives watching this - I see lots of comments below where people have stopped watching after a few minutes but this isn't quite what you think it may be. I'd only recommend that you persevere through to about the 4m30s point if not further. He is not some trojan horse for either the insane left or insane right but rather someone who has provided insights into how people arrive at their political viewpoints and also why polarisation is getting so much worse whether it be in the US or other democracies. Well worth watching no matter what your view points are.

He asked who's liberal and who's conservative, and then he added libertarian. But she specified that he was referring to social issues ( as opposed to economic issues ) So a savvy political scientist/sociologist really should have known that on social issues libertarians don't need their own category because they are socially liberal just like liberals.

I believe what is important is to have a good balance. The problem is when you don't have it.

The Founders, imperfect as they were, implicitly understood the thrust of Haidt's argument: and our republic, through all its bloody and seismic travails, has been the better for it

This is one of the best videos on the internet.

Read his book and it was excellent.

This is probably one of my favorite videos EVERRRR....literally can watch it over and over, can listen to this guy for hours

Why cant presidential debates have more intellectually stimulating conversations like this? We need to elevate our level of discourse

I like both : openness and novelty and new experiences, whilst also protecting tradition and having high moral values. I don't see that they can't coexist.

I'm in Canada and this hasn't aged well. Our "Liberal" government can't even answer a question or tell the truth. They will see every Canadian out on the street starving.

As a conservative what he said sums it up very well. “They believe that order is precious and hard to achieve, and that it is very easy for order to collapse into chaos, so it must be protected at all costs.”

An interesting anecdote is the Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli, who due to trauma had an extreme obsession for familiar love. This obsession lead unexpectedly to him becoming a nationalist supporting the party Mussolini would come out from

This was such a great talk. Thanks. Most people mean well. It's a matter of trying to understand where they're coming from and why.

But was Napoleon really short? Loved reading Haidt and Joshua Greene in a moral psychology class last semester.

SOMETIMES.... experience... a VAST array of experiences throughout life BRING us to a more learned and more defined, thus CONSERVATIVE and fiscally responsible point of view... at SOME point, everyone MUST agree that the work we do as individuals is NOT an entitlement of those who WILL NOT work for themselves... if they want to be better... let them STRIVE to be better and earn it--legitimately.

With the Yin and Yang illustration, I am reminded of parenting working together in a family. The mother is nurturing and non-judgmental, while the father tends to ask for accountability and discipline. Only when both work together to address the wide ranging needs can a family thrive through thick and thin. I agree with Haidt, the current Congress is dysfunctional, and partisanship will take us to the abyss.

This was very insightful

Haidt is a very smart dude. I enjoy his work.

This comment section proves that Jonathan did a good job. People from both ends of the political spectrum claiming he spoke on their behalf.

Crowd’s response to blue pill / red pill choice was beautiful and telling of our true human nature. Even aware of the rewards of superiority, our curiosity for the truth will overpower.

This is an amazing talk, woah!

I think the biggest problems is the media really plays up the extremes. Most people aren't like that. Most Republicans aren't that extreme, nor are Democrats. In reality people are far more complicated and nuanced.

They’re both hilarious to watch. No politician is here to save you.

I was looking for this type of discussion. Wow!

Much of the news we receive these days is presented in such a way as to encourage us to see things in a certain way. Our goal, through this understanding, must be to step out of the ring and make up our own minds on each issue.

Had to watch it twice to breathe it all in, but yes, truth IS what will set us free. By sharing that commonality, we can wipe the entire chart off the wall. However, after all that has happened since this video, it's not going to be easy. I feel an old fear has gripped the world since then. Ingroup. As global immigration continues the world will change forever, countries will change forever, and society will change forever. Purity has a lot to do with this too. But the thing is, it's all briefly temporarily if we just let it happen. The quicker we can put our differences down and be people together, the faster we can get to a more unified world. And then ingroup and purity take a massive hit for everyone.

A world without religion is still a world of rules of conduct. Peace isn't dependent on faith. It's dependent on cooperation... Peace to all!

The Key is finding out what you agree on. Facts are facts. Agreeing what is a fact and not opinion is key to moving forward. Avoid what aboutism.

It never gets old, showed up on my feed today 😮

The issue with this way of thinking is that often peace and negotiation isn't a real option for some groups. Many times throughout history the "in-group" has sought to completely exterminate the "outgroup" and the when the outgroup pleaded for assistance, they were met with "why can't everyone just get along". I'm not saying that's what Haidt is saying here, but these sorts of things can be used as justification by those comfortable with their positions in society to ignore the problems of those who were not.

A very well spoken man,that creates a unbiased solution to humanities complex and greatest difficulties,in 18 minutes.Bravo!People need to not only hear this,but also integrate this on all levels of interaction,for their own sake,as individuals,and as a part of larger collectives.

This explains to me why I diverged from the conservative home and community I grew up in.

This video has followed me for days. I hope I learn something new.

I'm scored in the 99 percentile for "Openness to experience." I'm classical liberal, however, on some issues, I'm completely conservative because wisdom and common sense both dictate it so on certain issues regarding security, fairness, opportunity and a level playing field for all.