Last Wednesday, the Rose House hosted a talk by Professor Peter Enns. We discussed some current events like the Cabinet nominations in the new administration, and the general politicking and scheduling of nominations so that, for example, Senator Sessions could have voted for Betsy Devos’ nomination to education secretary before Session would face his own vote for Attorney General. From the perspective of the Republicans this was a smart strategy, but from the perspective of the Democrats it may seem a little insidious.

In the age of increasing polarization – at a level not seen since before the Second World War – what divides these two groups so strongly?

Professor Jonathon Haidt, of the NYU Stern School of Business, has spent his career trying to find an answer. In one TED Talk he gives on “The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives” he divides the left/right based on several moral categories: Harm, fairness, In-group loyalty, respect for authority, and purity/sanctity. Based on several surveys the left tends to care a great deal less about loyalty, authority, and purity, than the right, who may see things like punishment as very important policies to communicate to others for the sake of the group’s survival. In a very general sense, the left is more open to experience, and the right is more open to familiarity.

“If you’re high in openness to experience, revolution is good, it’s change, it’s fun. Conservatives, on the other hand, speak for institutions and traditions. They want order, even at some cost to those at the bottom.”

These fundamental moral intuitions, ones about institutions and reciprocity, are very important for informing our sense of the world (and our ideologies). They can, I think, help explain what’s driving the left and right in Congress to act the way they do.