iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

I’ve long wanted to write about this. Paradigm changes are hard and messy, and science is social. Interested in y’all’s thoughts. www.moralunderstandingnewsletter.com/p/when-jon-h...

moralunderstandingnewsletter.com

When Jon Haidt Called Me a Cheater

Science, Snark, and the Moral Mind

0225

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Are we more predators or prey? We’ve guessed wrong for a century. Today we can shoot wolves from helicopters but—I argue in the @nytimes today—humans evolved more as hunted than hunters. Link ⬇️

130

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Why some celebrate the murder of Brian Thompson. I talked with @AnnieDuke about the psychology of victimhood and harm for her latest @washingtonpost column. Link below

110

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 22/10/2024

Take home: "If you want to understand why your father-in-law votes differently from you, or why a foreign-exchange student emphasizes different values, your best bet is to understand their perceptions of harm." with @sampratt99!

010

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 22/10/2024

Taxonomies: there are lots of different ways to count moral concerns. We cover taxonomies of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. But distinctness between these themes exists more in the minds of researchers than in the minds of the people we study.

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 22/10/2024

Cognition: Moral pluralism is obviously true, but our mind uses a harm-based template to make more judgments, explaining why perceived harm almost perfectly predicts condemnation across different acts.

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 22/10/2024

Politics: Political disagreement is connected to assumptions of vulnerability, a new (under review) idea from our lab. Libs vs. con see different people as especially vulnerable to victimization.

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 22/10/2024

Culture: We draw from Shweder's classic work on "ontologies of suffering" how different cultures understand what causes harm. If you think defiling sacredness causes suffering, you think it's immoral.

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 22/10/2024

In this new review, we explore the idea of moral pluralism, and how it can arise from psychological (and cultural) concerns about suffering. Moral differences arise when different people make different assumptions about harm. fulltext: tinyurl.com/moralityinourmind

110

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 22/10/2024

Online ahead of print in Annual Review. How to make sense of moral differences across cultures and politics.

130

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 09/10/2024

While creating HLLMs (historical LLMs) can be challenging, we believe they provide a novel research opportunity to overcome the present-focus of current work and give voice to societies of the past. Authors: Michael Varnum, Nicolas Baumard, & @MohammadAtari90

000

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 09/10/2024

LLMs have successfully replicated human responses (like moral judgments & cognitive biases) in present participants. Training them using historical texts would allow researchers to examine non-WEIRD populations, cultural change, & generalizability of psych phenomena. 2/3

110

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 09/10/2024

🏯🕌🏦 New paper in @PNASNews: Historical Large Language Models (HLLMs) can be a tool in behavioral science for collecting data from *past societies* by simulating responses from “participants”—namely, the dead—through history. dir.lat/zuydaF 🧵1/3

110

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 04/06/2024

Moms Doesn't Return Grocery Cart When She Shops With Kids Mom is worried about pedophiles, commenters call her a monster. I argue it’s the dilemma of the commons. (Also not great for civil discourse to end a video with “F— off.”)...

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 23/05/2024

Big thanks to amazing lab managers/RAs @blakey_will & @sampratt99 for all their help with the manuscript and throughout the process. Orange/harms figure credit: Kevin House Amazon pre-order: a.co/d/bF9bQJf

a.co

Amazon.com

000

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 23/05/2024

It won't come out until January--after the election, but just in time for the inauguration. Hopefully, by then, people will be more interested in understanding each other than winning. But I'll be covering its contents in the substack.

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 23/05/2024

I'm really pleased that it's (mostly) done. The proposal "the victim within" was rejected by everyone, until Edward Kastenmeier at @PantheonBooks saw its promise. He had me (repeatedly) reframe and rewrite it into something much better.

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 23/05/2024

Liberals and conservatives seem to have different morals, but I argue that we all share a harm-based moral mind. Our evolutionary past makes us worry about harm, but people today disagree about which harms are most important/real, creating moral outrage and political disagreement

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 23/05/2024

🚨Book!🚨 "Outraged: Why We Fight about Morality and Politics" has an Amazon listing: "A groundbreaking new perspective on the moral mind that rewrites our understanding of where moral judgments come from, and how we can overcome the feelings of outrage that so often divide us"

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 23/05/2024

The real reason why we fight about morality and politics. It’s not because we have different values. It’s because we see harm differently—especially about the powerful and othered. (Also because we evolved from terrified little hominids) ...

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 18/04/2024

Worrying about kids on social media is the latest moral panic. We explain why panics thrive online and why we can't just quit feeling afraid. DANGER! Why MORAL PANICS(!) Are Irresistible to Your Brain w @sampratt99 & @CurtisPuryear ...

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 09/04/2024

🚨Job🚨 Come join the Deepest Beliefs Lab! We're hiring a full-time RA/outreach person. Perfect for a media-savvy graduating senior thinking about grad school. We have a great record of placing folks! bit.ly/3TU7ky2

000

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 09/04/2024

Why is politics (literally) a firestorm? In the @guardian, I argue that bc we evolved feeling threatened, it's easy to convince ourselves that *we* are victims and *they* are evil predators bent on destruction. But in reality, everyone is afraid. ...

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 27/03/2024

If you want to hear more like this, subscribe to our Moral Understanding Substack newsletter (in my bio) and/or stay tuned for my book OUTRAGED coming out in January

000

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 27/03/2024

Lots of caveats to this work--it's just a first look at AoVs. Also it's *descriptive* mapping out how people see victimhood. It's not *normative*--it doesn't make a claim about who are *true* victims.

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 27/03/2024

AoVs provide a parsimonious explanation for moral differences, avoiding 3 issues w MFT--1. the obvious lack of modularity 2. the tautology of MFT without modules (people care about purity because they care about purity) 3. lack of good discriminant validity of 5 6(?) foundations

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 27/03/2024

We also show that AoVs are stable across time, can be measured implicitly, can be manipulated, and drive real world moral behavior (charity donations).

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 27/03/2024

Libs *amplify* group diffs, splitting the world into the vulnerable oppressed and invulnerable oppressed (BLM). Cons *dampen* group diffs, focusing less on groups and more on potential victimization of all individuals (All lives matter).

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 27/03/2024

Here are AoVs across politics for 4 clusters. 1. Agreement: All people rate Environ & Othered > Powerful > Divine 2. Disagreement: Libs see big group diffs in the vulnerable versus invulnerable. Cons see all groups as relative equal.

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 27/03/2024

We find that many political debates revolve around AoVs of 4 clusters of targets: The Environment (rainforests) The "Othered" (trans ppl) The Powerful (corporate leaders) The Divine (Jesus) These are not 4 special modules, just useful ad hoc clusters. Scenarios:

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 27/03/2024

The power of AoVs to explain morality across politics is key, bc is shows how a harm-based mind provides for moral pluralism without foundations. It's why perceived harm (victimization) predicts wrongness across all acts.

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 27/03/2024

All moral issues are tradeoffs about potential harm. Black Lives Matter vs. Blue Lives Matter: who is more vulnerable, black people or cops? Illegal Immigration: are undocumented people victims of violence or causing it? AoVs about these groups drives ppls moral position.

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 27/03/2024

The importance of AoVs is obvious with abortion bc it is a trade-off about harms (fetus vs. woman). Pro-life see fetuses as vulnerable babies. Pro-choice see them as mindless cells, deserving less concern than pregnant women. Your moral stance = which you see as more vulnerable.

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 27/03/2024

The main finding is simple. People's moral judgments are predicted by their AoVs, as measured by these 3 short qs We know that people care about protecting the obviously vulnerable (kids, puppies) from harm. Moral disagreement happens when ppl see diff things as vulnerable.

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 27/03/2024

Real world debates are not about "foundations" of liberty or fairness. They are about *victims*--who is most vulnerable to mistreatment. Cops? Black people? Fetuses? 8 studies show moral debates are explained by diff "assumptions of vulnerability" (AoVs) btw libs and cons.

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 19/02/2024

led by @sampratt99. You can find the link in my profile too because muskx hates external links.

000

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 19/02/2024

Many social ills are blamed on being alone, but ancient traditions celebrated solitude Maybe the real problem is pathologizing solitude, turning being alone into being "a weird evil loner" We uncover surprising complexity in aloneness. Sometimes bowling alone is OK. Link in pic

100

Kurt Gray @kurtjgray.bsky.social · 19/02/2024

Faculty jobs at @UNC, spread the word! Two positions at the new School for Civic Life and Leadership, one tenure-track and one teaching focused. T-t: unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/274868 Teaching: unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/274867 Come join us!

unc.peopleadmin.com

Assistant or Associate Professor

This tenure track faculty position will focus on teaching...

000