Haidt's 'The Righteous Mind'

287 Words2 Pages
In order to understand why rural and working-class Americans tend to support Republicans, it is crucial to understand social intuitionist model. In Chapter 8 of his “The Righteous Mind,” Haidt presents a Durkheimain vision of society, which explains this model. In a Durkheimian society, the basic social unit is not the individual, but the hierarchically structured family. A Durkheimain society values self-control over self-expression, duty over rights, and loyalty to one’s group. Rural Americans tend to be more religious and have tighter family bonds (of course, there are exceptions) than people from urban areas, so the Durkheimain society model characterizes them better than a Millian model, which rests exclusively on Care and Fairness foundations.