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Jonathan Haidt

Jonathan Haidt Quotes

Psychologist

Jonathan Haidt is an American psychologist known for his research in moral psychology and social psychology. His work focuses on moral judgment, political ideology, and religious beliefs. Haidt's book, 'The Righteous Mind,' explores the evolution of morality and ideology and how they shape human behavior and social structures.

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Famous Jonathan Haidt Quotes

“Love and work are crucial for human happiness because, when done well, they draw us out of ourselves and into connection with people and projects beyond ourselves. Happiness comes from getting these connections right.”

People Humans Wells Done Projects Draws Connections Crucial Human Happiness

Book:The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

Source: The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

“Many species reciprocate, but only humans gossip, and much of what we gossip about is the vale of other people as partners for reciprocal relationships.”

People Humans Species Partners Gossip Reciprocal Reciprocate

Author:Jonathan Haidt

“There are a couple of watersheds in human evolution. Most people are comfortable thinking about tool use and language use as watersheds. But the ability to play non-zero-sum games was another watershed.”

People Thinking Humans Play Use Games Language Ability Evolution Couple Comfortable Tools Zero Human Evolution Zero Sum Game Watersheds

Author:Jonathan Haidt

“Human rationality depends critically on sophisticated emotionality. It is only because our emotional brain works so well that our reasoning can work at all.”

Humans Wells Brain Emotional Depends Reasoning Sophisticated Rationality

Book:The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

Source: The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

“Religion and science, for example, are often though to be opponents, but as I have shown, the insights of ancient religions and of modern science are both needed to reach a full understanding of human nature and the conditions of human satisfaction. The ancients may have known little about biology, chemistry, physics, but many were good psychologists.”

Source: The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

“Happiness is not the shallow state of feeling pleased and chipper all the time. Happiness is the state of a human being that has achieved cross-level coherence within herself, and between herself and the people, challenges, and institutions around her. Happiness comes from between.”

People Humans States Feelings Challenges Human Beings Levels Crosses Institutions Shallow Coherence

Author:Jonathan Haidt

“Human thinking depends on metaphor. We understand new and complex things in relation to the things we already know... once you pick a metaphor it will guide your thinking.”

Thinking Knows Humans Depends Picks Relation Complexes Metaphor Guides

Author:Jonathan Haidt

“The most powerful force ever known on this planet is human cooperation - a force for construction and destruction.”

Humans Inspiration Motivation Force Powerful Known Planets Destruction Most Powerful Cooperation Construction

Author:Jonathan Haidt

“It's a basic fact about being human that sometimes the self seems to just melt away.”

Humans Soul Self Sometimes God Facts Seems Spirituality Being Human

Author:Jonathan Haidt

“The very ritual practices that the New Atheists dismiss as costly, inefficient and irrational turn out to be a solution to one of the hardest problems humans face: cooperation without kinship”

Humans Problem Faces Turns Practice Solutions Atheist Hardest Ritual Cooperation Irrational Kinship

Author:Jonathan Haidt

“Do people believe in human rights because such rights actually exist, like mathematical truths, sitting on a cosmic shelf next to the Pythagorean theorem just waiting to be discovered by Platonic reasoners? Or do people feel revulsion and sympathy when they read accounts of torture, and then invent a story about universal rights to help justify their feelings?”

Source: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

“The human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor.”

Mind Humans Stories Logic Human Mind Processors

Book:The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

Source: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

“Trying to run Congress without human relationships is like trying to run a car without motor oil. Should we be surprised when the whole thing freezes up?”

Should Trying Humans Whole Running Car Congress Oil Motor Freeze Human Relations Human Relationships Motor Oil

Author:Jonathan Haidt