Chapter Three: Elephants Rule Summary and Analysis

There are three basic principles of moral psychology. The first is intuition and second is strategic reasoning. An emotional response is often evoked when one is criticized. And, we have the tendency to exaggerate or lie about ourselves when confronted with criticism. It is easy to see the fault in others but sometimes impossible to see our own flaws. Haidt quotes Jesus, who referred to seeing "the speck in your neighbor's eye" (pg. 54) and Buddha who wrote in part, "one conceals one's own faults as a cunning gambler conceals his dice" (pg. 54).

Brains aren't particularly concerned with the truth. They evaluate everything all the time and make adjustments to put the host in an optimum position at all costs. In the 1890s, Wilhelm Wundt who was the founder of experimental psychology, established the concept of...