Author: Johnathan Haidt

Notes:

• Human thinking depends on metaphor → We understand new or complex things based on what we know
• How we think?
  • Historically: Divided self
    • Buddhism: Mind as a wild elephant
    • Plato: Rational mind has reins on chariot
    • Freud: Ego, Superego and ID
    • Author (Haidt): Rider on an elephant
      • Rider and Elephant have own intellgence
      • Don't always work together!
      • Emotionally intelligent person has skilled rider who can distract and coax elephant, not a contest of wills
      • Minds are a loose confederation of parts but we pay too much attention to the conscious verbal thinking
    • Ways we are divided
      1. Mind vs Body
         • Diff parts of body have their own agenda
         • Gut brain - high degree of autonomy and functions seperately
      2. Left vs Right
         • Left: Language processing and analytics
         • Right: Patterns in space
         • Study shows we will confabulate (make up reasons) for own behaviour, shown in split brain tests
      3. New vs Old
         • Evolution of diff parts of brain over time
         • Promethean script: Ancestors received divine gift of reason (which makes rationality new to us and unmastered)
         • BUT - Human rationality depends critically on emotionality
      4. Controlled vs Automatic
         • Example of automatic → Priming effect (fluency)
         • Automatic: Can be controlled by stimulus control (behaviourist model)
         • Controlled allows people to think LT goals over temptation
           • But, has little power to cause behaviour
  • How to change your mind?
    • Pop Psych: Control your interpretation → Control your world
      • But, the rider can't just decide to change and order the elephant to go along
      • Requires retraining of elephant
    • Elephant reacts before rider even sees snake on path
    • Nature and nurture work together to explain personality, but Nature > Nurture
      • Genes are recipes for producing a person over years
    • Tactics for changing mind
      • Meditation
      • Cognitive Therapy (recognise, name, alternative)
      • Medication
  • Relationships & Society
    • Vengeance and gratitude support larger and more cooperative social groups
    • Brain size proportional to log of group size → Humans are made to be social
    • Gossip is about moral and social violations in groups
    • Good stories: Bad stories ~ 10:1
    • Reciprocity is a way to trigger the built in social rules
    • Relationships grow best by balance of give and take - gifts, favours, attention, self-disclosure
    • Mimicking helps perception of helpful and agreeable-ness
  • Bias
    • Each of us thinks we see the world directly, as it really is
    • Our inner lawyer ensures we do not blame ourselves (or group) for selfist and shortsighted acts → Rationalisation and bias → Self virtue vs Pure evil
    • Pure evil myth: self-serving bias and naive realism
    • Steps to handle bias
      1. See it as a game, stop taking so seriously
         • Control judgement → Meditation, Cognitive Therapy
      2. Find fault with yourself
  • Happiness
    • Pleasure of getting what you want is fleeting → Hedonic Adaptation
    • The elephant gets pleasure when it takes a step in the right direction → Progress Principle
    • Happy people grow rich faster because they are more appealing to others and commit to projects more → Reverse correlation to happiness
    • Happiness Hypothesis
      • Buddha & Epictetus → Happiness comes from within, cannot make world conform to desires
      • Genes explain more than we think but not as a set point → Potential Range or Prob Distribution
      • H = S + C + V
        • Happiness
        • Set Point (biologically)
        • Conditions of life
        • Voluntary activities
    • Important conditions (C) to happiness (from studies)
      • Noise (esp intermittent and variable)
      • Commuting
      • Lack of Control
      • (Reduction of) Shame
      • Relationships
    • Activities (V) that contribute to happiness
      • Flow: State of total immersion in a task that is challenging yet closely matched to abilities → In the zone
      • Keys to flow
        • Clear and engaging challenge
        • Requisite skills to meet challenge
        • Immediate feedback at each step
      • Happiness can be increased by using strengths, esp to strengthen connections
    • Issues with obtaining happiness → Misguided Pursuits
      • Behaviours make sense only as products of moral emotions formed through evolution
      • Conspicuous consumption follows different psychological rules → Arms race, Zero sum game
      • Experiences give more happiness because they have greater social value, often done with others
      • The elephant cares about prestige, not happiness → Looks to others for its goals and values
  • Love
    • Attachment Theory → Love > Fear
      • Two needs of safety and exploration are opposed
      • These 2 needs are regulated by a thermostat that monitors ambient levels of safety
      • Healthy children should be given a secure base to explore (eg. hold, hug, cuddle, love)
    • Modern myth of true love: True love is passionate and never fades
    • Love can be divided into Passionate and Companionate
      • Two separate processes with different time courses
    • Social relationships can predict happiness
  • Adversity
    • Suffering is usually mixed of good and bad
    • Most beneficial in late teens and twenties
    • Wisdom is tacit → require life experiences
    • Key: moral and spiritual development
    • Benefits
      • Rising to challenge reveals hidden abilities and changes your self-concept
      • Filters and strengthens relationships
      • Changes priorities and philosophies towards the present and others
    • Understanding change to personality
      • 3 Levels of personality
        1. Basic Traits
        2. Characteristic Adaptation (goals, coping mechanism, values, life-stage concerns)
        3. Life story
      • Life story is a work of historical fiction; dramatizing, interpreting and connecting events
      • Tragedy and adversity knocks you off hedonic/automatic treadmill → Create decision point of continuing or reassessing
      • Adversity can lead to more interesting Life Story material
      • We need coherence in all 3 levels of personality
    • Key: Try to change cognitive style (therapy, meditation), cherish and build support network, make sense through faith and practice, rewrite your life story
• Virtue
  • Aristotle: Good life is developing strengths, realising potential and being in line with your nature
  • Virtue Hypothesis: Cultivating virtue will make you happy
  • Historically culture
    1. Wrote about virtues to be cultivated, good and bad action
    2. Relies heavily on maxims and role models (not proof or logic)