Jonathan Haidt

Synonyms

Author; Researcher

Definition

Jonathan Haidt is a psychologist best known for his work on moral psychology.

Introduction

Most of Jonathan Haidt’s work has focused on moral psychology. His first major contribution to the field was the Social Intuitionist Model of moral judgment. This model posits that, unlike the assumptions of many previous philosophers and psychologists, moral judgments were not conscious, logical processes, but instead the product of multiple automatic processes (Haidt 2001). Other major contributions include his work on developing a scale of moral disgust and moral elevation. More recently he continued work on his Social Intuitionist Model, expanding it to cover the most important categories of moral intuition. This new model was called the Moral Foundations Theory.

The Social Intuitionist Model

The Social Intuitionist Model proposes four specifics of moral judgements: Moral judgements are primarily intuitive, justified after the fact, created to influence...