Jonathan Haidt Quotes

Gossip is a policeman and a teacher. Without it, there would be chaos and ignorance.

Cultural change works orders of magnitude faster then genetic change. Stephen Jay Gould

The advantage which disciplined soldiers have over undisciplined hordes follows cheaply from the confidence which each man feels in his comrades. Charles Darwin

The author found participants in a study able to come up with more reasons to support their position but not anymore likely to change their minds based on contradictory evidence. In effect, they enlist their IQ on behalf of their instincts.

Baumeister's point is that we have a deep need to understand violence and cruelty through what he calls "the myth of pure evil." Of this myth's many parts, the most important are that evildoers are pure in their evil motives (they have no motives for their actions beyond sadism and greed); victims are pure in their victimhood (they did nothing to bring about their victimization); and evil comes from outside and is associated with a group or force that attacks our group. Furthermore, anyone who questions the application of the myth, who dares muddy the waters of moral certainty, is in league with evil.

Groups create supernatural beings not to explain the universe but to order their societies.

Shallow are the souls that have forgotten how to shudder. Leon Cass