Conservatives Live in a Different Moral Universe — And Here’s Why It Matters | | AlterNet
Haidt identified five foundational moral impulses. As succinctly defined by Northwestern University’s McAdams, they are:• Harm/care. It is wrong to hurt people; it is good to relieve suffering.
• Fairness/reciprocity. Justice and fairness are good; people have certain rights that need to be upheld in social interactions.
• In-group loyalty. People should be true to their group and be wary of threats from the outside. Allegiance, loyalty and patriotism are virtues; betrayal is bad.
• Authority/respect. People should respect social hierarchy; social order is necessary for human life.
• Purity/sanctity. The body and certain aspects of life are sacred. Cleanliness and health, as well as their derivatives of chastity and piety, are all good. Pollution, contamination and the associated character traits of lust and greed are all bad.
Haidt’s research reveals that liberals feel strongly about the first two dimensions — preventing harm and ensuring fairness — but often feel little, or even feel negatively, about the other three. Conservatives, on the other hand, are drawn to loyalty, authority and purity, which liberals tend to think of as backward or outdated.
April 25, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Hm. I tend to think of myself as liberal, but think that the idea of fairness/reciprocity is not only wrong, but harmful. And I think most modern liberals are actually obsessed with purity – it’s just that the purity we’re obsessed about is not sexual purity but food purity and environmental purity.
May 16, 2009 at 2:10 am
As a religious liberal, I tend to believe in all according to varying degrees, excepting authority.