Preference Falsification and Postmodernism (with Michael Vassar)
Spencer Greenberg speaks with Caroline Mell, co-founder of OpenMind, about moral foundations theory, the origins of human morality, and common mistakes in discussing sensitive topics. They explore how understanding moral foundations can improve communication and bridge divides.
Deep Dive Analysis
16 Topic Outline
Introduction to Moral Foundations Theory
Exploring the Care and Fairness Foundations
Political Divides and Moral Foundations
Understanding Sanctity and Liberty Foundations
The Loyalty and Authority Foundations
Tension and Overlap Between Moral Foundations
Challenges of Online Communication and Moral Outrage
Evolutionary Purpose of Morality and Tribalism
Common Mistakes in Difficult Conversations
Strategies for More Constructive Dialogue
The Problem of Dehumanization and Simplification
OpenMind's Mission to Bridge Divides
Understanding Preference Falsification and Mistake Theory
The Nature of Postmodernism and Conflict Theory
Dehumanization and the Double Bind
Postmodernist Views on Thinking and Reality
13 Key Concepts
Moral Foundations Theory
A psychological theory proposing that human morality is built upon a set of innate, universal 'taste receptors' or building blocks. These foundations are shared across cultures but are relied upon in different degrees to form specific moral worldviews, explaining both moral similarities and differences.
Care Foundation
One of the six moral foundations, rooted in the evolutionary challenge of protecting offspring and vulnerable individuals. It encompasses values like preventing harm, reducing suffering, and promoting happiness for others.
Fairness Foundation
A moral foundation related to justice and reciprocity, but interpreted differently by various people. Some see fairness as proportionality (reward based on input), while others see it as equality (everyone reaps equal rewards regardless of input).
Liberty Foundation
This foundation centers on individual freedom and the desire not to be oppressed. It can manifest as freedom from oppression (often seen on the political left) or freedom from government intervention (often seen on the political right).
Loyalty Foundation
A moral foundation stemming from tribal instincts, involving allegiance and self-sacrificial behavior towards one's in-group. This can extend to family, friends, companies, or even patriotism.
Authority Foundation
This foundation involves respect for traditional forms of authority, such as parents, elders, or established institutions and traditions. It is often seen as the 'other side of the coin' to the Liberty Foundation, where unjust authority triggers a desire for liberty.
Sanctity Foundation
Rooted in the evolutionary need to avoid physical contamination and disease, this foundation extends to moral disgust and the notion that certain things should be treated as sacred or with reverence. It often ties into religious beliefs and the preservation of traditions.
Naive Realism
The human tendency to believe that one's own perception of reality is so obviously correct that anyone who disagrees must either be evil or stupid. This makes it difficult to understand or empathize with differing perspectives.
Moral Outrage
An ancient emotion, a mix of anger and contempt, that evolved to help small groups cohere and reinforce social norms. In the age of social media, it's exploited by platforms that reward its expression with likes and shares, leading to a cultural addiction.
Mistake Theory
A way of viewing the world where people are mostly telling the truth about facts and values, but are prone to making mistakes, especially about what is coherent. This perspective leads to the belief that societal problems arise from errors rather than malicious intent.
Conflict Theory
A way of viewing the world where people are primarily driven by self-interest, and societal problems arise from power struggles and manipulation rather than genuine mistakes. This perspective often distrusts surface-level explanations and seeks underlying agendas.
Postmodernism
A perspective that arises from experiencing situations where one is not believed, and where people can cause you to be wrong through a mixture of lying and threatening. It questions objective truth and assumes that people's minds work less like reasoning machines and more like input-output reaction systems, often focusing on dominance and submission dynamics.
Double Bind
A situation where an individual is unable to fulfill their obligations and unable to share their story about what is happening with anyone without getting deeper into trouble. This experience can be a catalyst for adopting a postmodernist worldview.
11 Questions Answered
Moral Foundations Theory is a psychological framework that suggests human morality is built upon six universal, innate foundations: care, fairness, liberty, loyalty, authority, and sanctity, which are combined in different ways to form individual moral worldviews.
Research shows political liberals tend to rely primarily on care, fairness, and liberty, while political conservatives rely more heavily on loyalty, authority, and sanctity, though everyone uses all six to some degree.
Online communication strips away nonverbal cues that build empathy, exploits our natural tendency for moral outrage by rewarding it with likes and shares, and encourages performative behavior due to the public nature of interactions, all of which are vulnerabilities in human psychology.
Morality serves as a system to enable groups of human beings to live together cohesively, cooperate internally, and outcompete other groups, ultimately aiding in the survival and flourishing of the group.
People often fail to define their specific goal for the conversation, instead focusing on catharsis or persuasion, and they frequently argue about strategies without first uncovering underlying shared goals.
Recognizing that disagreements often stem from different moral foundations helps humanize the other person, fosters curiosity about their perspective, and allows one to frame arguments using language and examples that resonate with the other person's core values.
Mistake theory posits that people are mostly truthful but make errors, leading to societal problems from mistakes, while conflict theory suggests people are self-interested and problems arise from power struggles and manipulation.
An extreme mistake theorist profoundly misunderstands the mental state of conflict theorists (postmodernists), attributing a cognitive structure to them that is not present, and failing to grasp that their minds operate differently, often without what the mistake theorist would call 'thinking'.
One generally becomes postmodern by experiencing and perceiving procedural injustice, which lowers their belief in a just world, reduces emotional sensitivity and sensory acuity, and leads to preference falsification and increased susceptibility to manipulation.
Postmodernists often view their thoughts as a psychiatric disorder, like depression, or as an 'attachment' that should be let go of, believing that thoughts primarily cause hurt and do not lead to truth, which they see as non-existent in the ordinary sense.
One can learn how to feel better about hurting non-postmodern people (in self-defense), how to fit in better, and how to maneuver for power within a postmodern context, by understanding how power works among people whose beliefs are somewhat insincere.
11 Actionable Insights
1. Cultivate Intellectual Humility
Foster intellectual humility by acknowledging the limits of your knowledge and the possibility of being wrong, which can improve decision-making, increase happiness, and strengthen relationships.
2. Separate Goals from Strategies
In disagreements, distinguish between underlying goals and the strategies to achieve them; often, people share the same goals but argue over different approaches. Dig beneath strategies to uncover shared objectives.
3. Define Conversation Goals Strategically
Before engaging in a difficult conversation, intentionally identify your specific goal for the discussion to guide your communication and ensure your actions advance that objective.
4. Prioritize Relationship Over Persuasion
In most difficult conversations, prioritize goals like getting along, having a good time, or maintaining the relationship over outright persuasion, accepting that well-intentioned people can disagree.
5. Understand Opposing Moral Lenses
When disagreeing, try to understand the underlying moral justifications and virtues driving the other person’s perspective, allowing for respect even without agreement. This humanizes them and fosters curiosity for constructive dialogue.
6. Practice Moral Reframing for Communication
Frame your arguments using examples and language that appeal to the moral foundations most valued by the person you’re speaking with, rather than mirroring your own, to improve resonance and connection. This technique is called moral reframing.
7. Use Moral Foundations as a “Secret Code”
Understand Moral Foundations Theory to decode underlying moral justifications in conversations, helping to make sense of differing viewpoints and political ideologies.
8. Name & Accept Moral Differences
When moral foundations clash, explicitly name the different foundations at play and accept that disagreement is possible without derailing the relationship.
9. Practice Integrative Thinking
When goals differ, use integrative thinking to create new strategies that can achieve both goals simultaneously, viewing tension as an opportunity for creative solutions rather than competing binaries.
10. Realign Actions with Conversation Goals
During a heated discussion, pause and ask if your current actions are moving you closer to or further from your predefined conversation goal, using this as a reminder to stay on target.
11. Take Breaks When Emotional
If you become emotional during a conversation, take a short break (e.g., walk, get water, change topic) to regain civility and refocus on your conversation goals.
6 Key Quotes
the mind is like a tongue with six taste receptors.
Caroline Mell (attributing Jonathan Haidt)
it often feels like it's just a battle between good and evil, where my side is good and your side is obviously evil because how else could you justify what you're doing?
Caroline Mell
we have this belief that our unique perception of reality is so obviously correct, our perspective is so obviously correct, that anyone who disagrees with us must either be evil or stupid.
Caroline Mell
we're almost becoming addicted to moral outrage because we have this feedback loop that's reinforcing, where we already have this reward circuitry engaged when we express the moral outrage, and then it's further perpetuated by the social reinforcement of the likes and shares that are really rewarding us for this behavior.
Caroline Mell
Everyone is born a mistake theorist. You would die if you were a baby postmodernist.
Michael Vassar
The word thinking in postmodernese means depression. The words design thinking in postmodernese means thinking.
Michael Vassar