Rob Henderson – The Psychology of Morality

In our introductory lecture, Dr. Rob Henderson presents morality not simply as a cultural construct, but as a built-in feature of human nature shaped by evolution to sustain cooperation. He illustrates this through the concepts of kinship selection and reciprocal altruism, tracing the roots of our moral intuitions. Together, we also see how moral judgment shapes perception through the Knobe effect, and consider the self-domestication hypothesis, the idea that humans became more peaceful by curbing persistently aggressive individuals throughout evolutionary history.

In lecture two, Dr. Henderson distinguishes moral philosophy—how we ought to act—from moral psychology—how we actually do. Through debates between consequentialism and deontology, illustrated by the trolley problem, we see that our judgments are often inconsistent and shaped less by principle than by intuition. The lecture concludes by exploring how emotions, unconscious processes, and evolved traits like disgust sensitivity quietly guide our moral views, with reasoning typically serving as post-hoc justification.

In lecture three, we learn how Jonathan Haidt’s moral foundations theory expands morality beyond harm to five evolved foundations: care, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity. We explore how liberals tend to prioritize care and fairness, while conservatives draw more evenly on all five, contributing to persistent political divides and mutual misunderstanding. The lecture concludes with Kurt Gray’s moral dyad theory, which argues that all moral judgments ultimately center on perceived harm involving an intentional agent and a suffering victim.

In lecture four, we explore the psychology of blame and punishment, considering why accidental harm is judged differently from intentional wrongdoing. We introduce moral typecasting theory—the idea that people are often perceived as either “thinking doers” who cause harm or “vulnerable feelers” who experience it—and examine how this shapes judgments across gender, race, and political lines. We conclude by addressing the limits of moral dyad theory and the controversial idea that violence can sometimes be viewed as moral, setting up a discussion of psychopathy and dark personality traits.

In lecture five, we analyze the dark triad—psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism—focusing on how these traits present in the general population through callousness, manipulation, and self-centeredness, and how they relate to moral behavior and well-being. We distinguish among the traits, consider their prevalence, and introduce contrasting ideas such as the light triad and counter-empathy, including schadenfreude. The lecture concludes by exploring how dark triad traits shape online behavior, suggesting that hostile individuals are more visible online rather than the internet fundamentally changing people’s behavior.