TeachingBase

Causes of our moral intuitions

In this lesson students explore the causes of our moral intuitions with the help of a sorting activity based on the work of psychologist Jonathan Haidt and his book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. Students also evaluate the degree to which our evolved moral intuitions may lead to negative outcomes for ourselves and society in today’s world.

As an extension, students could explore the stories of people who have joined and then left radical movements to understand the conditions under which prejudice, hatred and violence against other people or a group can arise and how they can dissolve again.

Teaching material type Full lesson plan, Project, Sorting activity, Tinbergen's questions

Subject Areas Biology, Civics, Ethics, Human Evolution, Philosophy, Social Studies, Social-Emotional Learning

Learning Goals Cooperation Competency, Evaluation Competency, Evolutionary Thinking, Metacognitive Competency, Self-Regulation Competency

Suitable Grade Levels 9-12

Concepts Development of behavior, Emotions, Function of behavior, Mismatch, Morality, Phylogeny, Tinbergen's questions

Content Anchors Ancient Ancestors, Our Mind

Author: Susan Hanisch

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