Hypermoralism – Morality causes ordinary people to do immoral things.
Some people believe that immoral acts are caused by amoral individuals. However, very few people are truly immoral (~1% of individuals are psychopaths). The idea of the term, hypermoralism, is to popularize the idea that morality can actually cause people to be immoral, rather than prevent them from being immoral (e.g. see this post). It's very close to the idea of idealistic evil, except that I think the use of 'evil' makes it harder for people to see it in themselves. It's easier to accept that one might engage in hypermoralism from time to time rather than idealistic evil. But it's basically the same concept, couched in non-judgmental terms.
I hope to explore the idea of hypermoralism in a series of blog posts.
Posts in this category:
- Hypermoral Debt Ceiling Quotes
- Hypermoral Debt Ceiling Quotes
- Libya as a moral war (except for libertarians)
- Osama Bin Laden’s Death is a chance to escape Zero-Sum thinking
- Osama Bin Laden’s Death is a chance to escape Zero-Sum thinking
- You can’t put out a Fire with Gasoline – A Reaction to reactions to the Giffords Shooting
- Stewart/Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity and the Psychology of Moderates
- On Hyperpartisanship, Hypermoralism, and the Supernormal Stimuli of Modern Politics
- On Hyperpartisanship, Hypermoralism, and the Supernormal Stimuli of Modern Politics
- Sam Harris’ TED video and the danger of liberal atheist moral absolutism
- The Psychology of Aggression and the Ugliness of the Health Care Reform Debate
- Religion does not cause racism, but group morality may underlie both.
- Hypermoralism – Morality causes ordinary people to do immoral things.
- Hypermoralism – Morality causes ordinary people to do immoral things.
- Methland by Nick Reding: Moral Maximizing and the Drug War
Main Themes of This Blog
- •Book Reviews – Consilience between psychology and books I read.
- •Hypermoralism – Morality causes ordinary people to do immoral things.
- •What are the psychological differences that make people liberal democrats, conservative republicans, or libertarians?
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Last 30 Posts:
- January 25, 2012
Why doesn’t Ron Paul use the word ‘America’ much? - January 7, 2012
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Should Protect Fair Negotiations (not the poor) - December 11, 2011
The Experiential Economy - November 2, 2011
The Moral Foundations of ThinkProgress, Alternet, Daily Kos, & the NY Times - October 15, 2011
Liberals vs. Conservatives:innocent until proven guilty? - September 11, 2011
Does social psychology try too hard to be perceived as a “science”? - August 31, 2011
Equity trumps Equality in arguments about taxation - July 31, 2011
Hypermoral Debt Ceiling Quotes - July 17, 2011
Libya as a moral war (except for libertarians) - July 10, 2011
Oregon’s Medicaid Experiment vs. Motivated Reasoning - June 18, 2011
Relative vs. Absolute Good Choices for Liberals, Conservatives, and Libertarians - May 23, 2011
Personality profiles of readers vs. non-readers and saving your local bookstore. - May 9, 2011
When Ingroup Love does not equal Outgroup Hate - May 2, 2011
Osama Bin Laden’s Death is a chance to escape Zero-Sum thinking - April 23, 2011
Liberals place more value on being funny than conservatives and libertarians. - April 21, 2011
Jon Kyl’s Moral Confabulation is something we all do. - March 30, 2011
Why should the US lead in Libya? Liberal-Conservative Value Differences. - March 24, 2011
Perceptions of Scarcity & Responsibility inform Budget Negotiations - February 27, 2011
Psychological Correlates of Feelings Toward Labor Unions among Liberals - February 22, 2011
Reagan was a Union Member – Visiting his Library as an exercise in Civil Politics - February 15, 2011
Psychology is generally Continuous, not Categorical - February 11, 2011
Are liberals more neurotic than conservatives? - February 10, 2011
Can liberal academics study conservative ideology? - January 17, 2011
Rush Limbaugh says Civility is the New Censorship - January 11, 2011
You can’t put out a Fire with Gasoline – A Reaction to reactions to the Giffords Shooting - December 29, 2010
Tony Washington’s NFL Story: How wrong is brother-sister incest? - December 18, 2010
Tony Hsieh, liberals, and libertarians prefer buying experiences to materialism – A Review of Delivering Happiness - December 7, 2010
The Case for Honesty as a Moral Foundation - December 2, 2010
The Definition of Moral Hazard and A Review of The Big Short - November 23, 2010
Does conflict avoidance underlie disproportionate liberal support of civility?
Civil Politics Posts
- Tom Edsall's Guide to What Each Side Gets Right January 23, 2012 Jonathan Haidt
- Keystone Pipeline's Unlikely Allies January 21, 2012 Bill Bishop
- Center Aisle Caucus brings bipartisan civility to congress October 26, 2011 Ravi Iyer
- 6 Structural Ideas to turn Partisans into Americans from The Atlantic August 5, 2011 Ravi Iyer
- 95% of Americans want civility in politics & 87% believe it's possible to get there July 21, 2011 Ravi Iyer
February 20th, 2011 - 14:28
Wouldn’t this suggest that all political and religious stripes (liberals, conservatives, libertarians, Christians, Muslims, atheists, etc) are susceptible to hypermoralism, whereas agnostics, moderates and independents would be less so?
February 21st, 2011 - 12:44
yes, that would be a true interpretation. One can come up with historical examples of extremists of all persuasions causing terrible harm due to moral concerns, whereas I can’t think of any moderates or agnostics who cause such issues.