Book · 2012 · Psychology
The Righteous Mind
Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
#133 of 16,760 books, ranked by how many different people bring it up on podcasts
- mentions
- 27
- people
- 17
- podcasts
- 13
- episodes
- 25
- critical mentions
- 0
You don't use reason to form your beliefs. You use your beliefs to select your reasons, and everyone you disagree with is doing the same thing.
Jay Shetty · On Purpose with Jay Shetty · Apr 2026 Listen at 22:20 What they say about it
- Discusses political psychology4
- Praises the book“is an amazing”4
The best things said about it
The Righteous Mind which I think is one of the best books on political psychology as well as other books.
Ezra Klein The Ezra Klein Show · Apr 2025 Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind, I think is an amazing I do, too.
Kemi Badenoch Honestly with Bari Weiss · Dec 2024 The righteous mind is brilliant about this that we were evolved to be religious creatures in a certain way.
John Height, that wrote a book called The Righteous Mind, and he goes through the types of people the the types of personality traits that lead someone to be more progressive or Democrat and more conservative or Republican.
So I'm reading a book by Jonathan height called The Righteous Mind subtitle is why good people are divided by politics and religion.
Where and when it comes up
Mentions per year
2
1
5
4
1
1
5
7
1
How it comes up
17 people who brought it up
- Bari Weiss3 mentions · 2 recs
- Geoffrey Miller2 mentions · 2 recs
- Jay Shetty2 mentions · 1 rec
- Phil Labonte2 mentions · 1 rec
- Michael Malice1 mention · 1 rec
- Tim Pool1 mention · 1 rec
Jonathan Haidt3 mentions- Tina Jordan2 mentions
- Andrew Yang1 mention
- Ezra Klein1 mention
- Jonathan Anomaly1 mention
- Kemi Badenoch1 mention
Why people recommend it
The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt is an insightful exploration of moral psychology that investigates why good people are divided by politics and religion. On On Purpose with Jay Shetty, Jay Shetty recommended the book to illustrate how people utilize reasoning not to form original beliefs, but rather to select justifications for beliefs they already hold. On Timcast IRL, Phil Labonte and Tim Pool referenced Haidt's framework to explain the underlying moral foundations and psychological divergences between liberals and conservatives. Bari Weiss also championed the book, noting during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience and on her own podcast, Honestly with Bari Weiss, that Haidt brilliantly explains how human beings evolved as inherently religious creatures whose tribal instincts easily manifest in political polarization. Furthermore, Geoffrey Miller praised Haidt's analytical depth on The Joe Rogan Experience, while Michael Malice included the work on his recommended reading list on the Lex Fridman Podcast. Across these various platforms, speakers highlighted the book as essential reading for understanding the emotional roots of human disagreement, moral intuition, and the deep-seated drivers of tribalism in modern society.
Every mention
Bari Weiss I think you've had Jonathan height on the show and his book the righteous mind is brilliant about this that… 3
Discussed
“I know Jonathan Height talks about this in his book, The Righteous Minds, that we all have sort of a God-shaped hole in us”
Recommended
“The Righteous Mind”
Recommended
“I think you've had Jonathan height on the show and his book the righteous mind is brilliant about this that we were evolved to be religious creatures in a certain way”
Geoffrey Miller I'm a big fan of Jonathan heights work and the righteous mind and and the way he kind of analyzes this stuff 2
Recommended
“I'm a big fan of Jonathan heights work and the righteous mind and and the way he kind of analyzes this stuff”
Recommended
“so you know the people who have thought the most deeply about this like I'm a big fan of Jonathan heights work and the righteous mind and and the way he kind of analyzes this stuff”
Jay Shetty Book number eight is The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt. You can tell I've read this one a few times. I'v… 2
Recommended
“Book number eight is The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt. You can tell I've read this one a few times. I've lost the cover. Here's the lesson. You don't use reason to form your beliefs. You use your beliefs to select your reasons, and everyone you disagree with is doing the same thing.”
Discussed
“Otherwise, we live in our tiny Righteous Mind as Jonathan Haidt calls it—this idea that my way is righteous and I believe the way I live and the way I think is the only right way.”
Phil Labonte and and uh John hyp both talk about those kind of things Peterson talks about the the you know your your yo… 2
Discussed
“there's this guy, John Height, that wrote a book called The Righteous Mind, and he goes through the types of people the the types of personality traits that lead someone to be more progressive or Democrat and more conservative or Republican.”
Recommended
“and and uh John hyp both talk about those kind of things Peterson talks about the the you know your your your psychology and height talks about the the things that kind of um lead you to have your political opinions in the The Righteous Mind I think it's a great book and I think that you don't just get”
Michael Malice and no john jonathan height the righteous mind that's those are the four 1
Recommended
“and no john jonathan height the righteous mind that's those are the four”
Tim Pool you got to read the righteous mind by jonathan height the difference between liberals and conservatives is… 1
Recommended
“you got to read the righteous mind by jonathan height the difference between liberals and conservatives is based on differences of moral in uh”
Jonathan Haidt That figures in my first book the happiness hypothesis and again in my book the righteous mind in trying to… 3
Discussed
“That figures in my first book the happiness hypothesis and again in my book the righteous mind in trying to understand moral emotions.”
Discussed
“But what's happened is, as I say in 'The Righteous Mind', we evolved for small-scale societies that are deeply religious, that circle around sacred objects to make us stronger, especially in battles against other groups.”
Discussed
“one of the things I cover in the happiness I pop in that righteous mind is we're all designed for confirmation bias”
Tina Jordan so I'm reading a book by Jonathan height called The Righteous Mind subtitle is why good people are divided… 2
Discussed
“so I'm reading a book by Jonathan height called The Righteous Mind subtitle is why good people are divided by politics and religion”
Discussed
“and I'm reading the Righteous Mind why good people are divided by politics and religion by Jonathan”
Andrew Yang And that harkens to the work of Jonathan Hite, who looms large in your book. You cite him frequently, and h… 1
Discussed
“And that harkens to the work of Jonathan Hite, who looms large in your book. You cite him frequently, and his studies are quite fascinating in terms of the psychological differences between Democrats and Republicans. So can you elucidate that a little bit? Yeah. Jonathan is such an incredible philosopher, really. He's a friend as well. And his work on”
Ezra Klein he's also the author of The Righteous Mind which I think is one of the best books on political psychology a… 1
Discussed
“he's also the author of The Righteous Mind which I think is one of the best books on political psychology as well as other books”
Jonathan Anomaly And Jonathan Haidt and others have talked about this. I know you've had him on the show. He mentions this i… 1
Discussed
“And Jonathan Haidt and others have talked about this. I know you've had him on the show. He mentions this in his book The Righteous Mind that has to have genetic consequences over time.”
Kemi Badenoch uh and um Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind, I think is an amazing I do, too. 1
Discussed
“uh and um Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind, I think is an amazing I do, too.”
Piers Morgan A lot of it is down to phones, you know this, Jonathan Haidt’s book that came out was pretty scary about th… 1
Discussed
“A lot of it is down to phones, you know this, Jonathan Haidt’s book that came out was pretty scary about the impact on impressionable young minds, but I also think we're not preparing kids when they come through school; we're not preparing them for the hard knocks of the real world.”
Rob Henderson i saw that jonathan height was giving a talk on campus and i had just read his book the righteous mind abou… 1
Discussed
“i saw that jonathan height was giving a talk on campus and i had just read his book the righteous mind about moral psychology which is an interest of mine”
Tim Harkness I was reading a book called the righteous mind by a writer called Jonathan and hate and and he says scienti… 1
Discussed
“I was reading a book called the righteous mind by a writer called Jonathan and hate and and he says scientists even when they wrong are prepared to change their mind in a way that ordinary people are not”
Tobias Rose-Stockwell Moral emotions, so this is a frame from Jonathan Haidt, who is my collaborator at NYU; he read the foreword… 1
Discussed
“Moral emotions, so this is a frame from Jonathan Haidt, who is my collaborator at NYU; he read the foreword of the book and has been researching moral emotions for a long time.”
Will Witt i'm not sure if you've read the book jonathan hyde his book on uh what's it called i can't remember the boo… 1
Discussed
“i'm not sure if you've read the book jonathan hyde his book on uh what's it called i can't remember the book but essentially he does studies on on the difference between uh the righteous mind yeah right i think so yeah”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker2
Discussed
“I think it's called The Righteous Mind is the book rightous mind Righteous Mind is the book that he he did”
Discussed
“i've not read the righteous mind by jonathan height but he talks about the different moral taste buds and how each of those taste buds touches a different part of our palate and causes us to swing to one side of the spectrum or the other”
Speaker Modern Wisdom End Of Year Review: 2021's Lessons, Hacks & Fails - #416 2021-12-30 Listen at 46:06
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (22: passing, ad reads, own books)
Passing
“He's the author of a number of books, The Coddling of the American Mind, The Righteous Mind, The Happiness Hypothesis, and most recently, The Anxious Generation, which is the focus of our discussion today.”
Plugged
“but your first book Is All About moral framework MH connect these for me”
Plugged
“what you're bringing up is one of the divisions that I talked about in The Righteous Mind between left and right”
Plugged
“and so I get deeply involved in in what's going wrong with our democracy and that's that's the Righteous Mind”
Plugged
“and some of the content from my book The Righteous Mind and it's it's now it evolved”
Plugged
“it's now it's 6 30 minute modules that teach you about moral psychology why are we divided what do liberals believe what do conservatives believe why do conversations go wrong”
Plugged
“What we did is we took some insights from moral psychology and some of the content from my book, The Righteous Mind.”
Plugged
“It also just helped me — what it did was here at the same time I was reading the Bhagavad Gita and in the Bhagavad Gita, there is a specific scene, I talk about this in The Righteous Mind or The Happiness Hypothesis.”
Plugged
“Because the other piece we want to bring in here is that in grad school I read Émile Durkheim, the French sociologist and that so, and really comes out in The Righteous Mind like Rick Shweder and Émile Durkheim and Charles Darwin.”
Passing
“so you've been thinking about the human mind for quite a long time you wrote the happiness hypothesis the righteous mind the coddling of the american mind”
Plugged
“and i got a contract to write the righteous mind”
Passing
“Jonathan is also the author of the New York Times best sellers The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion and the absolutely brilliant and just game-changing The Coddling of the American Mind”
Plugged
“center-left atheist jew um they when they read the righteous mind they find it useful and they see that i don't have the usual academic contempt for religion”
Plugged
“so the story that i tell in the righteous mind um is that we is that humans are products of multi-level selection”
Plugged
“and the argument that i make in the righteous mind is that humans show signs of some group level selection”
Plugged
“and in the righteous mind i i i was so pleased that i could integrate two of my my heroes in the social sciences which are durkheim and darwin”
Plugged
“and then just in New York University in 2011 when my last but previus book the righteous mind came out”
Passing
“mr. Jonathan hight author of the righteous mind is coming on Rory Sutherland vice chairman of Google V advertising”
Passing
“I have booked without a doubt some of the best minds on the planet to come on this podcast mr. Jonathan hight author of the righteous mind is coming on Rory Sutherland vice chairman of Google V advertising which is one of the biggest advertising companies in the world tiago forte of the Praxis blog”
Plugged
“So my second book the righteous mind the subtitle is why good people are divided by politics and religion”
Plugged
“so my second book the righteous mind the subtitle is why good people are divided by politics and religion”
Plugged
“And you know my book the righteous mind and the happiness hypothesis were both based in part on the insight that when we're making decisions we do consult how we feel”