The Past and Future of Moral Understanding

Best of 2024 and what's next

Happy New Year to everyone!

2024 was an incredible year for this newsletter, thanks to you! Since launching in 2022 (as part of the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding), we’ve worked to give you useful insights from the science of morality.

This year, we hit over 26,000 reads and doubled our subscribers to nearly 1,500. Below, you’ll find last year’s five most popular posts (and you can explore even more in the “Archive.”)

Looking ahead is big news! My book, Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground, launches in one week (eep!), on January 14th! If you enjoy this newsletter, you’ll find even more to love in the book.

If you want a teaser, check out this op-ed in the New York Times about how we’ve misunderstood human nature for the last 100 years

Here are the most popular articles from 2024:

#5: Being Alone Doesn’t Make You a Killer

America has a loneliness epidemic—at least that’s what we’re told. In this post, we challenge the common wisdom that the biggest problem with American society is that we’re too isolated. Instead, we argue, this narrative might be part of the problem: we’ve turned “being alone” into something to be reviled and avoided. We return to the wisdom of Henry David Thoreau and other champions of solitude, combining it with new psychology findings to show you how you can find joy in your own company.

Being Alone Doesn't Make You a Killer

#4: The Problem with Moral Psychology

Is it okay for two consenting siblings to make love? Most people are disgusted by this idea, viewing it as morally wrong despite being unable to clearly articulate why. Where do these strong feelings come from? God? Logic? Our evolved mind? This post will challenge what you think about morality and perhaps give you a new understanding of the origins of right and wrong—a must-read if you enjoy philosophy and fun moral dilemmas.

The Problem with Moral Psychology

#3: The Assassination of a CEO

It’s been all over the news this month: the assassination of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. But why were so many people celebrating the murder of a man with a wife and two kids? After reading this article, you’ll have the tools from psychology to understand why we often celebrate the pain of the powerful.

The Assassination of a CEO

#2: When a Christian Nationalist Drove me to the Airport

How can we have better conversations across political divides? I study the science of moral understanding, but I was forced to put this research to practice when I sat down in an Uber with a staunchly conservative christian nationalist driver. In this post, I explain how we can have civil conversations without sacrificing our own convictions.

When a Christian Nationalist Drove Me to the Airport

#1: Moving Forward: The 2024 Election and the Curse of Knowledge

Perhaps fittingly, one of our last posts of 2024 was about moving forward. We reflect on the election and discuss an often underlooked source of political animosity: the “curse of knowledge,” when we (incorrectly) assume that others know exactly what we know. We conclude with a note of optimism about our ability to come together over the next four years.

Moving Forward

That’s a wrap (a Substack Wrapped) on our top posts of 2024. Stay tuned for more articles soon and a reminder about the book launch next Tuesday!