Graham and I often joke about divergent political viewpoints. We met at a foreign policy discussion group, so it wasn’t any great secret that he was on the far more conservative end of the spectrum, while I unapologetically embraced the far more liberal end. Our common ground was found in that middle gray area: respect for the analytical reasoning with which we chose our differing viewpoints.
That’s why we found psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s research so interesting - he looks at how moral values shape political values, uncovering 5 guiding channels of reason:
- harm/care
- fairness/reciprocity
- ingroup/loyalty (choice bit from his talk: “sports is to war as pornography is to sex”)
- authority/respect
- purity/sanctity
I’ve seen this misstated online, so here’s a screen shot of the findings from his TED presentation. (NB: The whole presentation is great for both conservatives and liberals to watch.)
Jonathan Haidts Morality Quiz Results as Presented to TED
Among his findings:
“Moral issues in cultures are especially about ingroup authority purity.”
It only makes sense, then, that when I took the same test I scored even more liberal than I thought I would score. Have a look for yourself: my answers are in green, liberals in blue, conservatives in red.
Without even taking the test, I knew I care very little (couldn’t care less? not one iota?) about ingroup/loyalty and authority/respect. For personal reasons, I don’t hold a lot of stock in ingroup/loyalty. I’ve seen it used too often to obscure institutional decay and widespread dysfunction. In my experience, the weak cling to the group at all costs (even to their sense of self) instead of finding a way to follow their own beliefs. Similarly, I strongly believe it is your moral obligation to question authority - at the least you’ll be doing yourself a favor, and in some circumstances you’re the foil to injustice. The only surprising outcome was my score on purity/sanctity. I have to wonder if the questionnaire had asked about the food correlation, if my score would be higher. I don’t eat much in the way of processed foods. I was a strict vegetarian for 8 years (no cheats), and even now I’ve only added in fish. (After much hand wringing, despite it being a question of my health.) By that measurement alone, I should have scored higher.
But wow, more liberal than even I thought. My poor (ultraconservative) in-laws. How were they to know their California boy would move to Texas and marry a liberal vegetarian?
You can take this quiz yourself by visiting, YourMorals.org. Login and take the Moral Foundations Questionnaire, which is the first study listed in the portal.
(Who knows, maybe you’ll turn out to be a raving liberal too!)
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