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  • The Righteous Mind

  • Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
  • By: Jonathan Haidt
  • Narrated by: Jonathan Haidt
  • Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (546 ratings)

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The Righteous Mind

By: Jonathan Haidt
Narrated by: Jonathan Haidt
Free with 30-day trial

$16.45/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

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Publisher's Summary

Why can’t our political leaders work together as threats loom and problems mount? Why do people so readily assume the worst about the motives of their fellow citizens?

In The Righteous Mind, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores the origins of our divisions and points the way forward to mutual understanding. His starting point is moral intuition - the nearly instantaneous perceptions we all have about other people and the things they do. These intuitions feel like self-evident truths, making us righteously certain that those who see things differently are wrong.

Haidt shows us how these intuitions differ across cultures, including the cultures of the political left and right. He blends his own research findings with those of anthropologists, historians, and other psychologists to draw a map of the moral domain, and he explains why conservatives can navigate that map more skillfully than can liberals. He then examines the origins of morality, overturning the view that evolution made us fundamentally selfish creatures.

But rather than arguing that we are innately altruistic, he makes a more subtle claim - that we are fundamentally groupish. It is our groupishness, he explains, that leads to our greatest joys, our religious divisions, and our political affiliations. In a stunning final chapter on ideology and civility, Haidt shows what each side is right about, and why we need the insights of liberals, conservatives, and libertarians to flourish as a nation.

©2012 Jonathan Haidt (P)2012 Gildan Media LLC

Critic Reviews

"Haidt is looking for more than victory. He's looking for wisdom. That's what makes The Righteous Mind well worth reading…. a landmark contribution to humanity’s understanding of itself.” ( The New York Times Book Review)

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Must Read for All Who Hope to Advance US & Global Politics

This book was recommended to me by my 19 year son who is a neuroscience & philosophy
major at a Virginia university. He said "it should be required reading for all Americans, read it." I'm a new PhD student in political science & international studies, this the timing was perfect. I learned a tremendous amount about unconscious assumptions I held, and recent historical developments during my lifetime. The insights, analysis and recommendations Professor Haidt makes in The Righteous Mind are likely to have a lasting impact on our collective political and moral lives.

Clearly and beautifully conceived and written, I can't wait to read the book format and delve into the bibliography after listening to the audio book. I've already recommended this book to several scholars and friends. It is good therapy if you're watching and engaged with the US political landscape in any capacity. Many thanks to Jonathan Haidt for an outstanding contribution to the field of moral psychology, and for knitting together neuroscience, anthropology, and political sociology -- well done!

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3 people found this helpful

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  • Ken
  • 02-05-2017

everyone needs to listen to this book

I'm convinced that the way forward lies in the ideas and attitudes raised in this book. the left and right are becoming more and more hostile and distant from one another and no good could possibly come from it. within this book are some very important insights that may help is all be a little more open to discussion and compromise

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  • 17-09-2014

Interesting albeit simplified

Always like it when the author narrates his/her own book. Haidt offers an insightful breakdown into the irrationality of our collective political and moral conscientiousness.

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Well argued interesting thesis

Whilst I don't share his evolutionary worldview, his thesis explains a lot about politics today

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Modern Moral Psychology at its Finest

I am really surprised at how much this book comes up in conversations now a days. Understanding how people make decisions has made understanding other people a lot easier, and i thoroughly recommend it to everyone. Johnathan Haidt, while not the worst narrator in the world, is also not the best. He will just have to settle with being one of the best minds of the age, but only an average narrator.

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Well read, intellectual and funny

Fascinating content. Politics makes more sense after listening to this. It was empathetic and cohesive.

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a great listen

one of the best books I've found on audible, novel ideas and useful information

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Explore the potential of moral pluralism

Deeply researched a carefully structured sonas to allow the reader to progressively understand a range of point and perspectives on ethese points. Each section, and chapter within these sections, presents the research that has unearthed the evidence for moral arguments that have been debated and meditated on for millenia.

The deliberately non-judgmental tone is as refreshing as it is encouraging that we as readers may be able to share a similar equanimity in the face of much of the growing outrage and reactionary argumentation that seems to be gripping the world currently.

If everything in our lives has a moral dimension or lens, through which we observe both our live sand the lives of others, then this book provides the spectacles with which we may begin to utilise multiple lenses at the same time.

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Great read

I am mostly liberal in my views and found this a fascinating and useful insight into conservatism. This book is well thought out and walks a treacherous tightrope perfectly.

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Insights i

I feel his insightz are worthwhile pondering. I learnt a lot considering the pdycholigical, socialogical and historical foundations of our current polemic political stances.

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