Mindscape 227 | Molly Crockett on the Psychology of Morality

Most of us strive to be good, moral people. When we are doing that striving, what is happening in our brains? Some of our moral inclinations seem pretty automatic and subconscious. Other times we have to sit down and deploy our full cognitive faculties to reason through a tricky moral dilemma. I talk with psychologist Molly Crockett about where our moral intuitions come from, how they can sometimes serve as cover for bad behaviors, and how morality shapes our self-image.

Molly J. Crockett received her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Cambridge. She is currently Associate Professor of Psychology and University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. She is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the Society for Experimental Social Psychology.

#podcast #ideas #science #philosophy #culture

[peterz]

Excellent conversation! Thank you Molly & Sean.

[dandamerville]

BIG LOVE AND THANKS for this marvelous conversation. Sean Carroll, such a font of knowledge, such a generous, good hearted person. Still, kind of fun to see him so bothered by the strong likelihood that he's missing out on something by not practicing meditation.

[dudermcdudeface]

I'm 99% certain I went to the same grade school as her. How surreal to suddenly run into this podcast three decades later.

[conceptflow]

One of my favorite convos on here! My friend even wrote a paper on collective effervescence so I was so excited to hear that phrase!

[nckfrmthapnw]

I love her hair! It's wyld 😆 . Chaotic Entropy at its finest. I find perfection in pure disorder.

[waynescott]

Good conversation. Although I got fixated on the guest's pronounced vocal fry and probably missed half of what was said :)

[grmusic]

What I'd like to know is why the terms "mad scientist" and "evil genius" are so commonly used in our entertainment when most activities we might describe as evil seem to be perpetrated by people of limited intelligence, often under the guise of religion. Why are science and intelligence so suspect in the general population?

[johnthehillboy]

Hello Molly & Sean
On meditation or mindfulness being transformative and Sean’s friends being seemingly unchanged, I would askon:
“How much did they IMMEDIATELY attempt to use their new action space compared to others within the group, or other groups
When trying to increase the range of mobility of a joint the most important practice to affect change is perhaps to:
Immediately use that new space
Immediately.
You must engage the joint while it is primed for change to see any noticeable gains.
There is a temporal component that can not be ignored.
1-Reset - Alignment
2-Restore - Open Doors to Potential Space
3-Reprogram - Use That Space
My assumption is that there is something like this going on with attempts to change the neurology of a brain instead of the neurology of a joint.
How much reprogramming did Sean’s friends immediately engage in?
Would it have mattered?
Molly, I can not wait to see your paper coming out.
Wishes
John

[nckfrmthapnw]

Holy heck.. she's on to something. When both parties realize that 'they' want us to fight with one another and the two party system is meant to distract and divide.. only then can we ascend for the better.

[itheuserfirst]

Morality is relative, and throughout history it has been used to justify issues that today, we would consider to be "immoral." Morality is generally whatever current society agrees upon on at the time. Imagine all of the things deemed perfectly "moral" in modern times, and then imagine someone from a different era/moral context arriving in the future. There's a good chance that they would be disgusted by many things, and find the current human porject unrelatable. The point being, we don't know what will be considered moral, or immoral in the distant future because t's not up to us. Many of the important things we think we are fighting for right now could easily be seen as mere ideological/moral panics by future generations. Religious proponents should be all too familiar with this phenomenon. Look what is deemed acceptable now, compared to what they thought would lead to the end of the world if accepted?

[stoicsveganage]

Do not harm the weak, the vulnerable, the oppressed, or any sentient being. Causing NEEDLess suffering to a non human animal is wrong. Regardless of your upbringing, norms, culture. Change is inevitable.

[HarryNicNicholas]

another reason health care and particularly mental healthcare needs more money, cos mental health affects the morality of the future.

if someone has hallucinations that they have to kill someone then they have to be separated from society, but really it's the chemical imbalance or neurological imbalance that should be in the cell - there have been cases of drastic personality changes due to outside forces - the guy who got the spike through his head, and another who had a brain tumour which was removed - it's the spike and the tumour that require incarceration, not the person.

as molly says _some_ people love the idea of punishment.

hopefully one day medication / surgery / other therapies will be effective to the point where the need to incarcerate people is at least minimal, but then that begs the question, how far do you take "cures" for "undesirable behaviors" - who you vote for as an example. i'm close to two people who could be diagnosed as schizophrenic and i wonder how much their respective personalities would be altered if "cures" where possible, because the each have entirely different symptoms. one is incredibly creative, the other has no interest in just about anything.

is curing folks of mental illness - or even ANY criminal behavior - dicking with their "free will".

[williamjmccartan]

Thank you Molly and Sean for sharing the conversation with us, Dr. Crockett, you might enjoy the work Gregg Henriques is involved in today, on his UTOK channel on utb. About 37 minutes Molly you said that someone else might say "this isn't real because it wasn't real yesterday". Is dismissive of the very nature of your work, human beings have been questioning things and learning from the beginning, evolution isn't going to stop working, because of the news provide today. If I could recommend another individual it would be John Vervaeke. Peace

[Locrian]

@20:30 Regarding the evolutionary challenge to moral realism (ECMR) as stated, consider making the same argument regarding basic mathematical reasoning. Most humans and some nonhuman animals understand how to reason using addition. But on ECMR, isn't it odd that evolution converged on addition? I don't see what ECMR could possibly buy us in considering moral realism or non-realism, since the same argument would apply to logical and mathematical reasoning (and most people advancing ECMR are not antirealists regarding logic and math).

[gtziavelis]

'I go to Burning Man, but it's not about the psychedelia.' well then what's the point?

[bryandraughn]

I've learned that the Burning Man community encourages sharing everything, no litter, and things that differ from "other festivals" so maybe there's a specific type of data coming from that source?

[seancidy]

Why are all the Prof's female guests so beautiful?

[donaldfarmer]

From the start she sounds more like a politician then a scientist.

[dukeallen]

Assured priorities change after being exposed to substances so they do have permanent changes in ones life. Sean, you’ve not see this because your still working working working working……….

[mitchkahle]

What do orcs and demons do on their days off?