Liberals vs. Conservatives on the Schwartz Values Scale
I had to do a presentation relating some of my current work on yourmorals.org to some of the history of moral psychology and in doing so, I created this graph. It doesn’t include all the respondents on yourmorals.org as we changed our politics measure at one point and this graph only represents our newest subjects. [...]
Compare your political positions to 2008 presidential candidate positions -> VoteHelp.Org
Last summer, I began work on a project which is only now launching, VoteHelp.org. The idea is that people need a simple interface where they can input their opinions on issues and compare their positions to those of politicians. In this case, we decided to create the site in advance of the 2008 [...]
The Serial Comma » Gross National Happiness
I am just getting back from the Gallup Positive Psychology conference where we talk a lot about measuring happiness and well being rather than GDP to inform policy. In case anyone wonders what some of my posts on happiness have to do with public policy, here is a tidbit I recently came across.
The basic [...]
Cognitive moral relativism vs. moral absolutism in liberals and conservatives
One of the main ideas behind the moral foundation theory is that greater understanding of the differences between liberals and conservatives will lead to less demonization of the other side. This is a goal that is shared by liberals and conservatives alike. However, most of the people who work on this theory are [...]
talking morality with conservative blog writers of mayor sam, libertas, the big picture, and bridget johnson
So I’m just starting this blog and who knows where it will go, but so far so good and to continue the enjoyment of the process, I went to a ‘bloggers night out’ organized by Vik Rubenfeld who runs The Big Picture. Also in attendance were Bridget Johnson, a blogger from Libertas, and a [...]
Evidence that conservatives don’t like their 2008 top 6 presidential candidates
So I was in my office today when my advisor came in to chat and I mentioned that I started a blog, which got us talking about YourMorals.org. I was showing him some of the political graphs when he noticed an interesting thing about our political candidates survey (built by Sena Koleva, btw). [...]
Moral Foundations: The New York Times vs. Andrew Sullivan
Over the past year, I’ve gotten involved in research on moral psychology and it’s political implications, specifically working with a theory put forth by Jonathan Haidt and Jesse Graham at the University of Virginia called the moral foundations theory. You can read more about it here.
The main idea is that there are a finite [...]
Abu Ghraib and Ordinary People as torturers
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: ON ORDINARY PEOPLE AS TORTURERS (references in article)
Social psychological evidence emphasizes the power of social context; in other words, the power of the interpersonal situation. Social psychology has accumulated a century of knowledge about how people influence each other for good or ill [1]. Meta-analysis, the quantitative summary of findings across a variety [...]
a chance to listen to Dr. Laura at the LA Times Festival of Books
I went to the Los Angeles “Festival of Books” and there happened to be space at Laura Schlessinger’s (known as “Dr. Laura”, though I don’t think she’s a doctor) discussion of her new book (The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands?), hosted by Marta Waller. I was prepared for an hour of “fair and balanced” [...]