Part 1: Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second

Question 1

What is the first principle of moral psychology discussed in part 1?

Answer 1

Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second.

Question 2

What is the central metaphor for part 1: intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second?

Answer 2

The rider, elephant metaphor

Question 3

Believing that

“if a child gets enough experiences turn taking, sharing, playground justice it will eventually become a moral creature, able to use its rational capacities to solve harder problems”

is part of what type of moral psychology theory?

Answer 3

Psychological Rationalism

Question 4

Psychological rationalism believes that ______ is our nature, and good moral reasoning is the end point of development

Answer 4

rationality

Question 5

What did Piaget and Kholberg believe parents and other authority figures did to children’s moral development?

Answer 5

Hinder moral development.

Parents are obstacles, because it was thought you should let them play and figure it out for themselves, rather than telling them what is right.

Question 6

What were the flaws in the rationalist moral paradigm?

Answer 6

The framework used predefined morality as justice while denigrating authority, hierarchy and tradition.

This led to findings that were secular, questioning and egalitarian.

Question 7

Turiel was a moral _____

Answer 7

rationalist

Question 8

What was the “foundation of all moral development” in children according to Turiel?

Answer 8

Children being able to grasp rules that prevent harm

This was said to be special, important, unalterable and universal

Question 9

What was the bedrock of moral truth according to Turiel?

Answer 9

Harm is wrong

Question 10

What two moral constructs did Turiel and Kohlberg believe was the foundation of morality?

Answer 10

Harm and Fairness

Question 11

According to Turiel and Kohlberg, hierarchy and authority are ___ for moral development

Answer 11

Bad

Question 12

What two needs do societies need to balance in order to function according to Shweder?

Answer 12

The needs of the group and the needs of the individuals

Question 13

Witchcraft beliefs are common across cultures. There is typically a fear of being called a witch as you may be killed if you are accused.

What does this tell us about the nature of supernatural beliefs and why cultures generate them?

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Societies need to balance between the needs of the group and the needs of the individuals.

Sociocentric societies can be described as societies which…

Answer 14

Put the needs of the groups and institutions above the needs of the individuals.

Question 15

Societies need to balance between the needs of the group and the needs of the individuals.

Individualistic societies can be described as…

Answer 15

Individual autonomy at the center and society as the servant of the individual.

Question 16

Do most societies operate under a sociocentric or individualistic framework?

Answer 16

individualistic

Question 17

Fascist and communist societies are what type of society according to Shweder’s balance framework?

Answer 17

Ultra Sociocentric

Question 18

What did Shweder find in Orissa that contradicted Turiel’s rationalist moral worldview?

Answer 18

In sociocentric societies morality was much broader and any practice could be loaded with a moral force.

It was not only harm and fairness that constituted morality in these societies

Question 19

Is there a moral order like in sociocentric societies in individualistic societies such as the United States?

Answer 19

Yes

It is built around the protection of individuals and their freedom.

Question 20

What is the main distinction that creates different morals and conventions in individualistic v sociocentric societies?

Answer 20

A cultural distinction. It is a social convention.

If you put the individual first, rules or social practices that limit personal freedom can be questioned. If it doesn’t protect from harm, it cannot be morally justified.

Question 21

Does the evidence suggest that Turiel or Shweder is right in the answer to how societies develop morality?

Answer 21

Shweder.

Morality revolves around culture, not rationality.

Question 22

Who said this quote

“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them”

Answer 22

David Hume

Question 23

Does the evidence suggest that our moral reasoning is based off

Reason then it leads to our emotions

A combination of reason and emotion

Feeling emotion then reasoning after

Answer 23

We feel Emotion then Reason after

Reason is the slave of the passions - Hume

Question 24

In Haidt’s experiments why did people from individualistic cultures struggle to answer questions such as:

“is it ok for a brother and sister to sleep together if they use protection and nobody finds out”

and

“if someone takes a slice of meat from a fresh corpse about to be incinerated to cook at home because they thought it would be a waste otherwise.”

What would they attempt to do in answer to the question?

Answer 24

Their intuition told them it was wrong on a deeper level, but their cultural morality based on only harm and fairness could not justify why they felt it was wrong.

They would attempt to find reasons but could not, yet still held that it was wrong.

“I know it is wrong but I can’t think of a reason why”

Question 25

In conversation, is moral reasoning primarily thought out beforehand (pre-hoc) or done after your state your answer (post-hoc)?

Answer 25

Post-hoc

Morality is based on gut feelings, and reasoning is mainly done after the fact

Question 26

We’re born to be ______ but we have to learn what, exactly, people like us should be _____ about

Answer 26

righteous

Question 27

Why does Haidt refer to the West’s worshipping of rationalism as the “rationalist delusion”

“There is a direct worshipping of reason from Plato, to Kant, to Kohlberg.”

Answer 27

Because the West has made rationality “sacred” and as a consequence we are unable to think clearly about it.

Morality binds and blinds

Question 28

When something becomes sacred, it is hard to think clearly about it.

This is because morality _____ and _____

Answer 28

Morality binds and blinds

Question 29

Darwin was a moral nativist

What does this mean?

Answer 29

Natural selection gave us minds that were preloaded with moral emotions.

Question 30

Why is moral nativism deemed morally offensive in Western circles?

Answer 30

Because of Hitler’s social Darwinism.

If Hitler was a nativist, then all nativists are Nazi’s

• (illogial conclusion, but makes sense emotionally if you dislike nativism)*
• The richest and most successful nations, races and individuals are the fittest. Some races are therefore superior to others.*

Question 31

Why was Nativism demonized in the 60s and 70s?

Answer 31

Progressive social movements were developing.

If different people were born with inbuilt desires and skills, it would be an obstacle for achieving gender equality.

• “If nativism could be used to justify existing power structures, then nativism must be wrong.”*
• (logical error, but it is how the righteous mind works)*

Question 32

What did Pinker (2002) mean in his book The Blank Slate when he said that scientists had become “moral exhibitionists”?

Answer 32

Scientists were no longer telling their students to value ideas based on truth but instead for their consistency with progressive ideals.

i.e. racial and gender equality

Question 33

What 3 reasons led to Wilson (1975) get labelled as a fascist and racist and was distrupted from his scientific talks by protestors chanting “Racist Wilson, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide”?

Answer 33

1. He believed that there was human nature, which constrains the range of what we can achieve.
2. He believed that people justified their emotions with reason, therefore human rights were not real.
3. He believed that the study of philosophy, biology and evolution would create a new synthesis and that the domains would no longer be seperate.

Question 34

What are Frans de Waal’s “psychological building blocks” that are found in chimpanzees that he argues are the building blocks of moral systems and communities?

Answer 34

Emotions such as sympathy, fear, anger and affection.

Question 35

What did Damasio find in patients who had suffered brain damage to their ventromedial (i.e. bottom-middle) pre-frontal cortex

(abbreviated vmPFC - just behind and above the bridge of the nose)

Answer 35

Their emotionality dropped nearly to 0

Question 36

What does vmPFC stand for?

What is it responsible for?

Answer 36

Ventro-medial pre-frontal cortex

Communication between reasoning mind and emotionality.

Question 37

What happened to patients moral reasoning who had damaged vmPFC?

Answer 37

They could not conduct any reasoning, despite only having damage to their emotional center and not their reasoning cortex.

Question 38

When the vmPFC is damaged and people can no longer feel emotion they perform better in reasoning tasks now that they are not influenced by irrational emotion.

True or false

Answer 38

False

They cannot do basic analytical and organizational decision making tasks without the ability to feel emotion.

Question 39

What did Damasio’s vmPFC findings suggest for how we reason?

Answer 39

Emotions are fundamental in our ability to reason.

If we take emotions out of the question, we can’t make any decisions.

Emotions are the master, reason the servant - reason cannot operate without emotion.

Question 40

What was Margolis model for the mind that he thought was better than the mind-computer metaphor model for studying higher cognition (such as political beliefs)?

Answer 40

Lower cognition - such as vision, which works largely by rapid unconscious pattern matching

Question 41

Explain the Wason 4 card task

Answer 41

You are asked to verify a rule that if a card shows a vowel on one face, then it has an even number on the other.

Question 42

What do most people select in the Wason 4 card task?

What is the right answer?

Answer 42

People choose E and 4

Correct answer is E and 7 (4 is confirming the rule)

Turning over 4 and seeing a consonant would not invalidate the rule, but turning over the 7 and seeing a vowel would.

Question 43

What does the Wason 4 card task tell us about human reasoning?

Answer 43

We typically use pattern matching over complex reason

We are subject to conformation bias

Question 44

What is the difference in confidence in peoples reasoning if they choose E,4 or E,7 in the Wason 4 card task?

What conclusion did Wason draw from this?

Answer 44

They are as confident in each of their answers. However, when told the right answer (E7) they can see why.

Conclusion drawn: Judgement and justification are different processes

Question 45

What did Margolis suggest following Wason’s 4 card experiments?

Answer 45

First we have our judgements and then we produce rationales they believe account for their judgments.

The rationales are only ex post rationalizations.

(judgements are produced by nonconscious cognitive machinery, sometimes correct sometimes not)

Question 46

According to Margolis what are the two kinds of cognitive processes at work when we make judgements and solve problems?

Answer 46

Seeing-that

Reasoning-why

Question 47

What is Margolis“seeing-that” cognitive process?

Answer 47

Pattern matching to respond to certain inputs with certain behaviours.

• Rapid, automatic and effortless processing that drives our perceptions.*
• even the simplest animals have this (e.g. turn towards light)*

Question 48

Why can we not see that the lines are the same length, even when we know they are in the Muller-Lyer illusion according to Margolis’s cognitive processes model?

Answer 48

We are using our ‘seeing-that’ processes to make our judgement.

It is a form of intuitive pattern matching that we can’t not see.

Question 49

What is Margolis “reasoning-why” cognitive process?

Answer 49

The process by which we describe how we think we reached the judgement, or how others may too reach the same judgement.

Concious and not automatic, hard to do

Question 50

What does Haidt suggest is the reason we conduct moral reasoning?

Answer 50

To find the best possible reasons why somebody else should join us in our judgment.

Not to reconstruct the actual reason why we ourselves came to the judgement.

Question 51

What is this model and what is it describing?

Answer 51

Social Intuitionist Model

Intuitions come first and reasoning is usually produced after a judgment is made, in order to influence other people.

As a discussion progresses, the reasons given by other people sometimes change our intuitions and judgments.

Question 52

Do people usually change their mind in private or due to social influence?

Answer 52

Social Influence

Social Influence Model

Question 53

How can people make cruelty seem acceptable and altrusim seem embarrasing without giving any reasons or arguments?

Answer 53

Through social persuasion

(4)

Question 54

To convince someone to change their mind, it is better to use ____ than _____

Answer 54

Empathy than reason.

Question 55

_____ is the antidote to righteousness

Answer 55

empathy

Question 56

What does the elephant and rider represent for moral reasoning?

Answer 56

elephant = unconscious, automatic pattern seeking judgment maker

rider = controlled post hoc reasoning

Question 57

Why do people do moral reasoning according to Haidt?

Answer 57

To “win friends and influence people”

intuitions come first, moral reasoning second

Question 58

Can you convince someone to change their moral or political beliefs through reason if it violates their intuitions?

Answer 58

No

You should “talk to the elephant” instead

Use links 3 and 4 in the social intutionist model

Question 59

What is the 6 word summary of the first principle of moral psychology

Answer 59

Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second

Question 60

What is Buddha warning us about when he says

“it is easy to see the faults of others, but difficult to see one’s own faults. One shows the faults of others like chaff winnowed in the wind, but one conceals one’s own faults as a cunning gambler conceals his dice”

Answer 60

Self-righteousness

We can easily lie to ourselves and see the flaws in others, but it is not so easy to empathise with others and see the flaws in ourselves”

Question 61

If the rider (reasoning) comes back empty handed when the elephant (intuition) has an initial judgement it will change the elephants mind.

True or False

Answer 61

False

shows that the rider is the servant of the elephant

Question 62

What are the 6 major research findings that show that intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second.

chapter headings

Answer 62

1. Brains Evaluate Instantly and Constantly
2. Social and Political Judgments are Particularly Intuitive
3. Our Bodies Guide our Judgments
4. Psychopaths Reason but dont Feel
5. Babies Feel but don’t Reason
6. Affective Reactions are in the right place at the right time in the brain