“Morality gives us genocide, war, politics… and also heroism, altruism, sainthood (Image: Martin Adolfsson for New Scientist)
Jonathan Haidt has delved into the tribal world of US politics, where each group is obsessed with its rightness. But as the moral psychologist tells Alison George, self-righteousness turns out to be an essential part of being human
You’ve called Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich a very good moral psychologist. What do you mean?
Gingrich is very skilled at manipulating moral sentiments. He understands visceral morality. In the 1990s, he came up with a list of words Republicans should use when talking about…
