TODAY IN MISSION YEARBOOK
Understanding the nation’s moral divide
The Synod of the Covenant recently turned to its partner, Science for the Church, to arrange a talk and question-and-answer session on a timely topic, “The Psychology of Polarization.”
The Rev. Drew Rick-Miller, Science for the Church’s project co-director, introduced Dr. Kurt Gray, a social psychologist, researcher and teacher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of the upcoming book “Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground.” Watch the 87-minute webinar hosted by the Synod of the Covenant’s executive, the Rev. Dr. Chip Hardwick, here.
Science for the Church exists “to strengthen the church through engagement with science,” Rick-Miller said. “We find that works best by connecting with scientists” who can “bring insights to a wide range of topics.”
Gray, who also directs the Deepest Beliefs Lab and the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding at the University of North Carolina, labeled his talk — which included a lengthy question-and-answer session — “Understanding Moral Divides.” Much of the material he presented will be in “Outraged,” which will be published on Jan. 25, 2025.
Why study morality? “Probably no one woke up today thinking, ‘You know what? I’m a monster. People think I’m evil and I like being evil,’” Gray said. “That’s the thing about elections: Everyone thinks they’re doing the best — for themselves and for their country.”
Gray said the work he and others have done reveals the reason we disagree about who to vote for is that those on the opposing side “are endorsing different issues that have different moral opinions attached to those.” For the first time since the Civil War, “how much we hate our outgroup is now much stronger than how much we love our ingroup.”
A favorite study from a few years ago looked at how much time people were sitting together to eat their Thanksgiving dinner. At tables with significant political disagreement, the meal ended about 30 minutes sooner. “Those folks got angry enough at each other that they barely sat around for pie,” Gray noted, “and we all know that pie is the very best part of Thanksgiving dinner.”
According to Gray, a person’s moral mind revolves around harm. Who is the real victim? How best to protect ourselves and the vulnerable? For example: Do guns help keep families safe, or do they ultimately harm people?
As moral people, we’re trying to protect ourselves and vulnerable people from harm, but the other side seems bent on destruction. “They want to burn it all down,” Gray said, but that destruction narrative is a myth. It’s rooted in the idea that humans evolved from predators. In fact, we evolved as prey, he said.
“We are weak and slow and not strong,” he said. “Our ancestors hid in trees and caves. … Humans evolved worrying about protecting ourselves.”
“We all worry about predators,” he said, “and we see them everywhere. The reason we get so outraged is because we feel vulnerable to harm,” especially in social media spaces.
He and his colleagues identified four clusters that people think about when protecting the vulnerable. They are:
- The environment, such as coral reefs and rainforests
- The othered, including undocumented immigrants and trans people
- The powerful, such as corporate leaders and state troopers
- The Divine, including Jesus and the Bible.
Those on the political left are more supportive of the first two groups, and those on the right the last two. If we zoom out a bit, “progressives see invulnerable oppressors versus vulnerable oppressed, which is why they’re so committed to fight inequality.” Conservatives “see the world less in terms of groups and more in terms of individuals.” Centrists, he said, “see merit on both sides.”
“Keep in mind that the other side is not evil,” Gray said, “but makes different assumptions about harm.”
He had suggestions on bridging the moral divide by, for example, inviting people to tell you about their personal experiences — and listening to what they have to tell you.
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service
Let us join in prayer for:
Andrew Kang Bartlett, Associate, National Hunger Concerns, Presbyterian Hunger Program, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Dwayne Batcho, Production Clerk II, Presbyterian Distribution Center, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Let us pray:
Lord, help me to listen to your voice, to hear what you are telling me to do and then to do it today. Amen.