Book review: global and cultural relations are increasingly tense because humans are hard-wired to be judgemental and self-righteous

Why do ideas such as ‘fairness’ and ‘freedom’ mean such different things to different people? Why is it so easy to see the flaws in others’ arguments, and less in our own? Jonathan Haidt argues that the reason we find it so hard to get along is because our minds are designed to be moral, and that we are hard-wired to be moralistic, judgemental and self-righteous too. Rebecca Litchfield finds that a key strength of the book is the way Haidt takes the reader through his own journey of moralistic discovery, drawing heavily on his own experiences and demonstrating how his own assumptions could be challenged and knocked down. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. Jonathan Haidt. Allen Lane. March 2012.