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Jonathan Haidt 5 Moral Foundations Theory and Politics

I am not sure who linked Jonathan Haidt's "The real difference between liberals and conservatives" TED talk to me on twitter. But wow, the talk is awesome. After watching the talk several times I felt the need to take notes so here is a summary, probably more for me than anyone else.

Haidt's "Moral Foundations Theory" holds that there are five fundamental moral values that extend across cultures and even to some primates. From the TED talk they are: (and AGAIN - these are just my notes - watch the video for more)

Haidt's Five Moral Values

1. Harm/Care - agreed on by both liberal and conservative
2. Fairness/reciprocity - agreed on by both liberal and conservative
3. Ingroup loyalty
   
   1. liberals are more independent
   2. only among humans do you find large groups
4. Authority/respect
   1. liberals reject authority, conservatives embrace it
5. Purity/sanctity
   
   1. political right moralizes sex
   2. left moralizes food as examples

Advanced Social Engineering Debate

Following the debate Advanced Social Engineering I then found the link to this Derren Brown video. Buying things with blank paper. Quite scary what a con artist can pull of. So does that make a PR professional a conman?

a discrepancy between fostered appearances and reality

  SHUNNED! 
  Originally uploaded by eskimo_jo

Goffman (again)

"When we think of those who present a false front or "only" a front, of those who dissemble, deceive, and defraud, we think of a discrepancy between fostered appearances and reality. We also think of the precarious position in which these performers place themselves, for at any moment in their performance an event may occur to catch them out and baldly contradict what they have openly avowed, bringing them immediate humiliation and sometimes permanent loss of reputation." - The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Erving Goffman. pg 59

So this is NOT a surprise:

Neighbors shun MySpace hoax family

... Residents of the middle-class subdivision have turned against the neighbor, Lori Drew, and her family, demanding the Drews move out. In interviews, they have warned darkly that someone might be tempted to "take matters into their own hands."

"It's like they used to do in the 1700s and 1800s. If you wronged a community, you were basically shunned. That's basically what happened to her," said Trever Buckles, a 40-year-old who lives next door to the Drews. ...

The Drews used to fit in just fine, said John McIntyre, who described Lori Drew as an intensely social woman who never hesitated to stop and talk.

Societies have their rules for a reason. Break those rules at your own risk.

Radical Transparency and the Back Channel

One of the meme du jour's of the blogosphere is the promulgation of corporate radical transparency. It is here! It is here!

I am a big fan of transparency. And we walk the talk with shared financials internally and close trusted communications with clients, resellers and employees. Yet there IS value in not being completely transparent. Value that you can lose by adhering to complete "radical transparency" in the extreme.

Let's jump back into history on the importance of "getting around bureaucracy". Processes are put in place for a reason; you can't scale a business without them. They are the "what to do" that gives the team self confidence. They know how to run a play to use a cheesy sports analogy. But sometimes you fumble. And when that happens you need to quickly pick the ball up. And hopefully you can accomplish this without the other team even seeing it.

In other words, sometimes you go around procedures to accomplish the greater good. You need a "back channel."

"Often we find that if the principal ideal aims of an organization are to be achieved, then it will be necessary at times to by-pass momentarily other ideals of the organization, while maintaining the impression that these other ideals are still in force. In such cases, a sacrifice is made not for the most visible ideal but rather for the most legitimately important one." - The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman, pg 45

And he continues with a quote from Page

"For the informal structure serves the very significant role of providing a channel of circumvention of the formally prescribed rules and methods of procedure. No organization feels that it can afford to publicize these methods (by which certain problems are solved, it is important to note) which are antithetical to the officially sanctioned and, in this case, strongly sanctioned methods dear to the traditions of the group." - "Bureaucracy's Other Face" - Social Forces, Charles Hunt Page (quoted from Goffman pg 46).

Alright - so one more time in English. There has to be a way to get around processes to solve problems. But those ways around the system must remain hidden or EVERYONE would use them, and well there you have a new process. You need both. And Radical Transparency does not afford this common sense approach. We seek a balance.

Traffic is a Collective Action Problem

Traffic is a classic collective action problem. No surprise here. Via O'Reilly.