Psychologist Jonathan Haidt asks a simple, but difficult question: why do we search for self-transcendence? Why do we attempt to lose ourselves? In a tour through the science of evolution by group selection, he proposes a provocative answer.
Jonathan David Haidt (pronounced “height”) is a social psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business. His academic specialization is morality and the moral emotions. Haidt is the author of two books: The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (2006) and The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (2012), which became a New York Times bestseller. He was named one of the “top global thinkers” by Foreign Policy Magazine, and one of the “top world thinkers” by Prospect magazine. His three TED talks have been viewed more than 3 million times.