What is morality? What does it depend on whether an act is considered morally “right” or not?

In this article we will know the theory of the moral foundations of Haidt , a theory that is based on 6 foundations to explain the moral reasoning.

Haidt’s Theory of Moral Foundations: Authors

Jonathan Haidt is an American social psychologist who, together with his collaborators, elaborates this theory in opposition to the theories of Piaget and Kohlberg , by not including these emotional aspects.

The theory of moral foundations was first proposed by psychologists Jonathan Haidt and Craig Joseph, who drew on the work of cultural anthropologist Richard Shweder. It consists of a psychological and social theory that attempts to explain the origins and variations of moral reasoning , on the basis of innate and modular foundations.

Specifically, Jonathan David Haidt, its most important author, was born on October 19, 1963 in New York (he is 55 years old). He is a social psychologist, Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University, and his research focuses on the psychology of morality and moral emotions.

The 6 fundamentals: values and opposites

The theory proposes six foundations of moral reasoning from which people and cultures build their morality. These are: care, justice, freedom, loyalty, authority and purity . However, the authors state that possibly more foundations will be included in the future.

This theory has been further developed by a group of collaborators and has been popularized in Haidt’s book entitled The Righteous Mind . From now on we will refer to it as Haidt’s theory of moral foundations.

The 6 foundations are composed of a series of values and their opposites, which are the following:

  • Care/damage : appreciation and protection of others
  • Justice/deception : justice represented by an agreement with shared rules. (Alternative name: Proportionality).
  • Loyalty/betrayal : to stand by your group, family or nation. (Alternative name: Endogrupality).
  • Authority/subversion : obeying tradition and legitimate authority. (Alternative name: Respect).
  • Holiness/degradation : dislike for unpleasant things, meals or actions. (Alternative name: Purity).
  • Freedom/oppression : moves us to rebellion when we feel humiliated.

How did the theory come about?

Towards the end of the year 2000, a group of social and cultural psychologists led by Jonathan Haidt began to systematize the main findings related to morality from the perspective of psychology, anthropology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology . As a result of this process, Haidt publishes in the journal Science the New Synthesis of Moral Psychology.

Origins

Haidt’s theory of moral foundations emerges as a reaction against the rationalist development theory of morality of Lawrence Kohlberg and Jean Piaget.

Kohlberg, based on Piaget’s work, argued that children’s moral reasoning evolves over time, and proposed a six-stage explanation of moral development. His work focuses on justice as a key concept in moral reasoning, considering it a primary cognitive activity; Kohlberg makes his theory a dominant approach to moral psychology. Thus, Haidt finds Kohlberg’s theory unsatisfactory because it does not focus on the emotional aspects.

Principles of the theory

Through Haidt’s Theory of Moral Foundations, it is proposed that human morality arises through these principles:

  • The primacy of automatic and affective processes in moral judgement.
  • Moral thinking is for social work.
  • Morals unite and build social groups .
  • Morality (for people and cultures) goes beyond the values of justice and care.

Differences between liberals and conservatives

Initially, the moral foundations of this theory were developed from cultural differences. Later, however, various works with the theory focused on political ideology .

Some authors proposed Haidt’s theory of moral foundations as an explanation of the differences between liberals and conservatives, and suggested these foundations as a basis to explain the variations or differences of opinion on political and social issues , such as the right to abortion or marriage between homosexuals.

Haidt proposes that liberals emphasize only three moral foundations: care, justice and freedom; while conservatives rely on all six.

Bibliographic references:

  • Haidt, J., Jonathan and Craig Joseph (2004). Intuitive ethics: how innately prepared intuitions generate culturally variable virtues. Daedalus, 133: 55-66.
  • Graham, J., Nosek, B. A., Haidt, J., Iyer, R., Koleva, S., & Ditto, P. H. (2011). Mapping the moral domain. Journal of personality and social psychology, 101(2), 366.
  • Graham, J., Haidt, J., Koleva, S., Motyl, M., Iyer, R., Wojcik, S. P., & Ditto, P. H. (2013). Moral Foundations Theory: The Pragmatic Validity of Moral Pluralism. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 55.