Social reality is so complicated that, once you join one team or the other, you become specialized in detecting certain patterns, but you become blind to other patterns.
Jonathan HaidtRead
We humans are really good at forming groups to compete, and then dissolving the groups and reforming them along different lines to compete in a different way.
Interpretation
Humans have a tendency to create and disband groups for competition, reshaping social dynamics constantly.
This quote highlights the dynamic nature of human social behavior, suggesting that we naturally form groups to collaborate and compete, only to dismantle these groups and create new ones based on changing circumstances or objectives. This cyclical process reflects our adaptive strategies in social interactions and competition.
In practice
In a team meeting discussing project changes, one might say, 'As Jonathan Haidt noted, we humans are really good at forming groups to compete, emphasizing our need for collaboration.'
Social reality is so complicated that, once you join one team or the other, you become specialized in detecting certain patterns, but you become blind to other patterns.
Understanding the simple fact that morality differs around the world, and even within societies, is the first step toward understanding your righteous mind.
Suppose you read about a pill that you could take once a day to reduce anxiety and increase your contentment. Would you take it? Suppose further that the pill has a great variety of side effects, all of them good: increased self-esteem, empathy, and trust; it even improves memory. Suppose, finally, that the pill is all natural and costs nothing. Now would you take it? The pill exists. It is meditation.
Trying to run Congress without human relationships is like trying to run a car without motor oil. Should we be surprised when the whole thing freezes up?
If you grow up in a WEIRD society, you become so well educated in the ethic of autonomy that you can detect oppression and inequality even where the apparent victims see nothing wrong.
When you hear someone criticize a policy on the other side, that's fine. But when you start hearing motive-mongering and demonization, stand up to it just as you would if it were something that was racist or sexist. If we avoid the demonization, disagreements can be positive.
To continue living, we have to die. That's the story of humanity - generation after generation - that we are going to die. There's nothing dramatic about death except that one loses one's life.
Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value.
There is a common tendency to ignore the poor or to develop some rationalisation for the good fortune of the fortunate.
We are afraid of the enormity of the possible.
A country without a memory is a country of madmen.
Why can we remember the tiniest detail that has happened to us, and not remember how many times we have told it to the same person.
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