Jonathan Haidt: Can a divided America heal?
Jonathan Haidt studies how -- and why -- we evolved to be moral and political creatures. Full bioChris Anderson - TED Curator
After a long career in journalism and publishing, Chris Anderson became the curator of the TED Conference in 2002 and has developed it as a platform for identifying and disseminating ideas worth spreading. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
in the way that we're familiar with,
and how did we get here?
apocalyptic sort of feeling.
that the other side is not just --
we strongly dislike them,
a threat to the nation.
now on both sides.
than before; it's much more intense.
at any sort of social puzzle,
principles of moral psychology,
have to always keep in mind
insights into human social nature
against the stranger."
to create large societies
in order to compete with others.
and out of small groups,
eternal conflict.
are making that more bitter,
baked into most people's mental wiring
a basic aspect of human social cognition.
really peacefully,
of fun ways of, like, playing war.
to exercise this tribal nature
and exploration and meeting new people.
as something that goes up or down --
to always be fighting each other,
can shrink or expand.
could continue indefinitely.
the sense of tribe for a while.
the new left-right distinction.
as we've all inherited it,
versus capital distinction,
now, increasingly,
who want to stop at nation,
of a sense of being rooted,
their community and their nation.
anti-parochial and who --
of the John Lennon song "Imagine."
nothing to kill or die for."
who want more global governance,
they don't like borders.
actually, his name is Shakespeare --
or drawbridge-downers?"
52-48 on that point.
who grew up with The Beatles
of dreaming of a more connected world --
anyone think badly about that?"
feel that that isn't just silly;
and they're scared of it.
in Europe but also here,
we have to look very carefully
about diversity and immigration.
that the left loves and the right --
can't think straight about it.
has grown enormously from it.
do a lot of good things.
I think, don't see,
cuts social capital and trust.
study by Robert Putnam,
feel that they are the same,
a redistributionist welfare state.
of being small, homogenous countries.
a progressive welfare state,
left-leaning values, which says,
The world is a great place.
we must welcome them in."
this summer,
is fairly politically correct
as we have in America,
racially divided, society.
uncomfortable to talk about.
especially in Europe and for us, too,
themselves not racists,
humans are just too different;
our sense of what humans are capable of,
much more palatable
scientist named Karen Stenner,
we're all the same,
a predisposition to authoritarianism.
there's not a threat
people are getting more different,
they want to kick out the deviants.
an authoritarian reaction.
the Lennonist line --
an authoritarian reaction.
in America with the alt-right.
we've seen it all over Europe.
or the nationalists, are actually right --
our cultural similarity,
matter very much.
approach to immigration
a generous welfare state,
that we're all the same.
and fears about that
of the current divide.
strategic reasoning second.
the term "motivated reasoning"
and our verbal abilities
not to help us find out the truth,
defend our reputation ...
at justifying ourselves.
group interests into account,
it's my team versus your team,
that your side is wrong,
a political argument.
with reasons and evidence,
the way reasoning works.
give us Google:
was born in Kenya.
10 million hits! Look, he was!"
surprise to a lot of people.
by techno-optimists
that would bring people together.
unexpected counter-effects to that.
of yin-yang views
about certain things,
that human nature is good:
the walls and all will be well.
not libertarians --
believe people can be greedy
and we need restrictions.
all over the world,
have been with us forever.
this feeling of division?
different threads all coming together.
actually, America and Europe --
from Joe Henrich and others
in a commons dilemma
during World War II,
looking for scraps of aluminum
and government,
at compromise and cooperation.
by the end of the '90s.
each other within each country,
"The Greatest Generation,"
is the purification of the two parties.
and conservative Democrats.
that was really bipartisan.
that started things moving,
liberal party and conservative party.
really are different,
our children to marry them,
didn't matter very much.
for post-hoc reasoning and demonization.
on the internet now is quite troubling.
on Twitter about the election
brought to us by #Trump."
dedication page. Disgusting!"
is troubling to me.
or a disagreement about something,
takes things to a much deeper level.
you get angry, you're not angry;
as subhuman, monstrous,
on marital therapy.
of the couple shows disgust or contempt,
to get divorced soon,
that doesn't predict anything,
it actually is good.
uses the word "disgust" a lot.
so disgust does matter a lot --
unique to him --
the Manichaean worldview,
is a battle between good and evil
they're wrong or I don't like them,
for example, on campus now.
to keep people off campus,
generation of young people,
involves a lot of disgust,
in politics as they get older.
and I think about emotions a lot.
of disgust is actually love.
powerful means we have.
that they're lovely.
or changes your category as well.
much more mixed up in the their towns
this great moral divide,
that we're moving to be near people
who's on the other side.
or say to Americans,
about each other
thing to keep in mind --
scientist Alan Abramowitz,
is increasingly governed
OK there's a candidate,
you vote for the candidate.
and all sorts of other trends,
the other side so horrible, so awful,
against the other side
that if people are on the left,
that Republicans were bad,
I can paint with all the things
with their candidate.
election in American history.
your feelings about the candidate
who are given a choice.
in a separate moral world --
is that we're all trapped in "The Matrix,"
a consensual hallucination.
that the other side --
they're the worst people in the world,
to back that up.
different set of facts.
different threats to the country.
from being in the middle
is: both sides are right.
to this country,
incapable of seeing them all.
that we almost need a new type of empathy?
I can put myself in your shoes."
the needy, the suffering.
to people who we feel as other,
to build that type of empathy?
hot topic in psychology,
on the left in particular.
for the preferred classes of victims.
think are so important.
because you get points for that.
if you do it when it's hard to do.
of dealing with our race problems
for a long time
threat on our hands.
divide we face.
and gender and LGBT,
of the next 50 years,
to get better on their own.
a lot of institutional reforms,
wonky conversation.
realizing that this is a turning point.
if you don't want to --
to spend the next four years
for the last year -- raise your hand.
read Marcus Aurelius.
for how to drop the fear,
wisdom for this kind of empathy.
people do to help heal?
to overcome your deepest prejudices.
and stronger than race prejudices
that's the main thing.
awful for one of you --
reach out and say you want to talk.
Friends and Influence People" --
if you start by acknowledging,
about you, Uncle Bob,"
appreciation, it's like magic.
things I've learned
at apologizing now,
somebody was right about.
and it's actually really fun.
speaking with you.
the ground that we're on
of morality and human nature.
this time with us.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Jonathan Haidt - Social psychologistJonathan Haidt studies how -- and why -- we evolved to be moral and political creatures.
Why you should listen
By understanding more about our moral psychology and its biases, Jonathan Haidt says we can design better institutions (including companies, universities and democracy itself), and we can learn to be more civil and open-minded toward those who are not on our team.
Haidt is a social psychologist whose research on morality across cultures led to his 2008 TED Talk on the psychological roots of the American culture war, and his 2013 TED Talk on how "common threats can make common ground." In both of those talks he asks, "Can't we all disagree more constructively?" Haidt's 2012 TED Talk explored the intersection of his work on morality with his work on happiness to talk about "hive psychology" -- the ability that humans have to lose themselves in groups pursuing larger projects, almost like bees in a hive. This hivish ability is crucial, he argues, for understanding the origins of morality, politics, and religion. These are ideas that Haidt develops at greater length in his book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion.
Haidt joined New York University Stern School of Business in July 2011. He is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, based in the Business and Society Program. Before coming to Stern, Professor Haidt taught for 16 years at the University of Virginia in the department of psychology.
Haidt's writings appear frequently in the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He was named one of the top global thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine and by Prospect magazine. Haidt received a B.A. in Philosophy from Yale University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.
Jonathan Haidt | Speaker | TED.com
Chris Anderson - TED Curator
After a long career in journalism and publishing, Chris Anderson became the curator of the TED Conference in 2002 and has developed it as a platform for identifying and disseminating ideas worth spreading.
Why you should listen
Chris Anderson is the Curator of TED, a nonprofit devoted to sharing valuable ideas, primarily through the medium of 'TED Talks' -- short talks that are offered free online to a global audience.
Chris was born in a remote village in Pakistan in 1957. He spent his early years in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, where his parents worked as medical missionaries, and he attended an American school in the Himalayas for his early education. After boarding school in Bath, England, he went on to Oxford University, graduating in 1978 with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics.
Chris then trained as a journalist, working in newspapers and radio, including two years producing a world news service in the Seychelles Islands.
Back in the UK in 1984, Chris was captivated by the personal computer revolution and became an editor at one of the UK's early computer magazines. A year later he founded Future Publishing with a $25,000 bank loan. The new company initially focused on specialist computer publications but eventually expanded into other areas such as cycling, music, video games, technology and design, doubling in size every year for seven years. In 1994, Chris moved to the United States where he built Imagine Media, publisher of Business 2.0 magazine and creator of the popular video game users website IGN. Chris eventually merged Imagine and Future, taking the combined entity public in London in 1999, under the Future name. At its peak, it published 150 magazines and websites and employed 2,000 people.
This success allowed Chris to create a private nonprofit organization, the Sapling Foundation, with the hope of finding new ways to tackle tough global issues through media, technology, entrepreneurship and, most of all, ideas. In 2001, the foundation acquired the TED Conference, then an annual meeting of luminaries in the fields of Technology, Entertainment and Design held in Monterey, California, and Chris left Future to work full time on TED.
He expanded the conference's remit to cover all topics, including science, business and key global issues, while adding a Fellows program, which now has some 300 alumni, and the TED Prize, which grants its recipients "one wish to change the world." The TED stage has become a place for thinkers and doers from all fields to share their ideas and their work, capturing imaginations, sparking conversation and encouraging discovery along the way.
In 2006, TED experimented with posting some of its talks on the Internet. Their viral success encouraged Chris to begin positioning the organization as a global media initiative devoted to 'ideas worth spreading,' part of a new era of information dissemination using the power of online video. In June 2015, the organization posted its 2,000th talk online. The talks are free to view, and they have been translated into more than 100 languages with the help of volunteers from around the world. Viewership has grown to approximately one billion views per year.
Continuing a strategy of 'radical openness,' in 2009 Chris introduced the TEDx initiative, allowing free licenses to local organizers who wished to organize their own TED-like events. More than 8,000 such events have been held, generating an archive of 60,000 TEDx talks. And three years later, the TED-Ed program was launched, offering free educational videos and tools to students and teachers.
Chris Anderson | Speaker | TED.com