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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights how one's upbringing in a Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) society shapes their perception of autonomy and justice.
Jonathan Haidt's quote emphasizes the influence of cultural context on individual awareness of social issues. Those raised in a WEIRD society often develop a heightened sensitivity to concepts of oppression and inequality which may not be recognized by individuals from different cultural backgrounds. This suggests that cultural upbringing heavily influences our ethical frameworks and the way we interpret experiences related to injustice.
Themes
Cultural AwarenessAutonomyInequalityOppressionEthics
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about social justice, one might quote Haidt to illustrate the importance of understanding different cultural perspectives.
More from Jonathan Haidt
All quotes →Understanding the simple fact that morality differs around the world, and even within societies, is the first step toward understanding your righteous mind.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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