Righteous Mind
By Sarah Daley (As published in The Union)
Thea Hood and Terry McLaughlin made a common mistake in their columns. They both encouraged us to use our logic in order to better communicate with others whose political opinions we disagree with. The reality is that our political opinions are based on our intuitions, and we use our logic to justify our feelings about our values. In order to communicate with those we disagree with, we need to understand which emotions our values are based on.
Dr. Jonathan Haidt studied and researched moral psychology for thirty-five years. His book The Righteous Mind discusses how moral judgment is based on gut feelings, not on logical arguments. Research studies have shown that people respond with logical arguments after they experience fleeting feelings that he called intuitions. When other people's opinions about morality trigger our intuitions, we immediately react by finding a logical arguments to defend our feelings and persuade others that we are right.
The emotional brain is much more powerful than we realize because most of it is in our subconscious, and we are usually not aware of when our subconscious minds are directing our actions. As a hypnotherapist, I use the image of an iceberg to describe the difference between the logical conscious and the emotional subconscious minds. The conscious mind is only 5% of our brain, and it is like the tip of the iceberg that we can see. Below the surface is the much more powerful part of the iceberg which we are not aware of but influences our values and actions. Ignoring how our subconscious influences our beliefs about moral psychology and politics makes it difficult to have constructive conversations with each other.
We all are triggered by each of the following moral foundations of politics: care/harm; fairness/cheating; loyalty/betrayal; authority/subversion; sanctity/degradation; and liberty/oppression. When we have stronger intuitions for one foundation over another, we feel more comfortable identifying as either liberal or conservative. We also feel more comfortable with people who feel the same way we do.
There is no need for war, only improved understanding of how and why our intuitions influence our moral and political beliefs. By understanding ourselves and others who disagree with our opinions we can more easily listen to each other so that we can communicate in a respectful and constructive manner and find common ground.
If you would like to see where your values relate to these foundations, take Dr. Haidt's online Moral Foundations Theory questionnaire called www.YourMorals.org.