A liberal can talk coherently about what the conservative view is because people like me actually do listen New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said in an interview last year. We dont think its right but we pay enough attention to see what the other person is trying to get at. The reverse is not true. ... The other side has dogmatic views.
Is this true? Are liberals like Krugman more open-minded than their conservative counterparts? Do they understand conservative views better than conservatives understand liberal views? University of Virginia psychology professor Jonathan Haidt has actually studied these questions and the answers appear to be no. In fact the exact opposite seems to be the case.
In his new book The Righteous Mind Haidt describes a study in which more than 2000 Americans were asked to fill out questionnaires asking them how much they agreed with statements like this one: I think its morally wrong that rich children inherit a lot of money while poor children inherit nothing.
One-third of respondents were asked to fill out the questionnaire according to their own views. One-third were asked to fill it out as they thought a typical liberal would. And the last third were asked to fill out the survey as if they were a typical conservative.
Haidt found that moderates and conservatives could accurately predict how liberals and conservatives would judge each statement. But liberals were far less capable of mirroring their ideological counterparts thinking. Those describing themselves as very liberal did worst. Apparently contra Krugman the more liberal you are the less able you are to understand other peoples beliefs.
Haidt who was raised by liberal Jewish parents near New York City and has voted as a partisan liberal in every presidential election later explains how this moral blindness can affect us all.
Liberals Haidt argues fail to appreciate the moral capital that successful societies have built up over years of cultural evolution. Moral capital includes the values virtues and institutions in a society that enable the community to suppress or regulate selfishness and make cooperation possible.
When liberals passed the well-meaning welfare programs of President Johnsons Great Society for example they failed to anticipate how the new system increased out-of-wedlock births and weakened African American families.
This blindness is not confined to American liberals like Krugman. Lord John Maynard Keynes the intellectual father of liberal economics said the following of himself and his college friends: We claimed the right to judge every individual case on its merits and the wisdom experience and self-control to do so successfully. ... We repudiated entirely customary morals conventions and traditional wisdom. We were that is to say in the strict sense of the term immoralists.
And in case you thought Keynes might have gained some humility as he aged he later added: I remain and always will remain an immoralist.
Keynes and Krugman are just the latest in a long line of thinkers that suffer from what Haidt calls the rationalist delusion or the belief that one can simply deduce all moral truth through reason alone. The rationalist delusion is not just a claim about human nature Haidt writes. Its also a claim that the rational caste (philosophers or scientists) should have more power. Or in the case of Keynes and Krugman that economists should have more power.
Not that conservatives have any kind of monopoly on moral truth. Haidt believes that although conservatives do a better job of preserving moral capital liberals are better at noticing certain classes of victims and fighting corporate power. Haidt might be right about liberals recognizing more victims but since at least the New Deal liberals have friends not enemies of corporate power.
Conn Carroll is a senior editorial writer for The Washington Examiner. He can be reached at ccarroll@washingtonexaminer.com.
A liberal can talk coherently about what the conservative view is because people like me actually do listen New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said in an interview last year. We dont think its right but we pay enough attention to see what the other person is trying to get at. The reverse is not true. ... The other side has dogmatic views.
Is this true? Are liberals like Krugman more open-minded than their conservative counterparts? Do they understand conservative views better than conservatives understand liberal views? University of Virginia psychology professor Jonathan Haidt has actually studied these questions and the answers appear to be no. In fact the exact opposite seems to be the case.
In his new book The Righteous Mind Haidt describes a study in which more than 2000 Americans were asked to fill out questionnaires asking them how much they agreed with statements like this one: I think its morally wrong that rich children inherit a lot of money while poor children inherit nothing.
One-third of respondents were asked to fill out the questionnaire according to their own views. One-third were asked to fill it out as they thought a typical liberal would. And the last third were asked to fill out the survey as if they were a typical conservative.
Haidt found that moderates and conservatives could accurately predict how liberals and conservatives would judge each statement. But liberals were far less capable of mirroring their ideological counterparts thinking. Those describing themselves as very liberal did worst. Apparently contra Krugman the more liberal you are the less able you are to understand other peoples beliefs.
Haidt who was raised by liberal Jewish parents near New York City and has voted as a partisan liberal in every presidential election later explains how this moral blindness can affect us all.
Liberals Haidt argues fail to appreciate the moral capital that successful societies have built up over years of cultural evolution. Moral capital includes the values virtues and institutions in a society that enable the community to suppress or regulate selfishness and make cooperation possible.
When liberals passed the well-meaning welfare programs of President Johnsons Great Society for example they failed to anticipate how the new system increased out-of-wedlock births and weakened African American families.
This blindness is not confined to American liberals like Krugman. Lord John Maynard Keynes the intellectual father of liberal economics said the following of himself and his college friends: We claimed the right to judge every individual case on its merits and the wisdom experience and self-control to do so successfully. ... We repudiated entirely customary morals conventions and traditional wisdom. We were that is to say in the strict sense of the term immoralists.
And in case you thought Keynes might have gained some humility as he aged he later added: I remain and always will remain an immoralist.
Keynes and Krugman are just the latest in a long line of thinkers that suffer from what Haidt calls the rationalist delusion or the belief that one can simply deduce all moral truth through reason alone. The rationalist delusion is not just a claim about human nature Haidt writes. Its also a claim that the rational caste (philosophers or scientists) should have more power. Or in the case of Keynes and Krugman that economists should have more power.
Not that conservatives have any kind of monopoly on moral truth. Haidt believes that although conservatives do a better job of preserving moral capital liberals are better at noticing certain classes of victims and fighting corporate power. Haidt might be right about liberals recognizing more victims but since at least the New Deal liberals have friends not enemies of corporate power.
Conn Carroll is a senior editorial writer for The Washington Examiner. He can be reached at ccarroll@washingtonexaminer.com.
