The Moral Psychologist

Below is a post I did for my new blog at Psychology Today "The Science of Sin"

As you stare longingly into your lover’s eyes this Valentine’s Day, forget about love. Think instead about good, old-fashioned lust and you’ll be much better-off for it. Just what’s so great about having a one-track mind? Well, where to begin? Read more about Forget about love this Valentine's Day, celebrate lust instead.

In the lead up to the publication of my first book The Science of Sin (The Joy of Sin, UK) in February, over the next couple of months I will give readers a taste of the virtuous side of the seven deadly sins. Read more about The Virtues of Sin: Anger

According to recent research by Amitai Shenhav and colleagues at Harvard, soon to appear in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, those of us who are more inclined to trust our intuitions may also be more likely to believe in God.

These researchers measured participants’ tendencies to engage in intuitive reasoning using the CRT, the Cognitive Reflection Test. This test is made up of questions like this: Read more about Why do we believe in God?

Despite anger’s status as a deadly sin, this ubiquitous emotion is quite functional.
Anger serves as a motivational force, keeping us on track when we face obstacles to our goals. It focuses us on rewards in the environment and gives us a sense control that empowers us to persist. Read more about The upside of anger

Gluttony is my favourite deadly sin. And according to research soon to appear in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, this sinful preference of mine may well be justified. Read more about No more guilt for the sweet tooth

Many moral dilemmas pit conflicting moral rules against one another. This is no more striking than in that set of problems that moral philosophers and psychologists typically study: trolley dilemmas.

Here is one, oft-studied version, known as the footbridge dilemma: Read more about Environments shape morality

In 2008, Vanity Fair and Slate columnist, Christopher Hitchens, underwent a session of ‘water boarding,’ an extreme ‘interrogation technique’ the torture-status of which was up for debate at the time.The technique involves having one’s head shoved into a sack, then being strapped on one’s back, head-down, on an incline board. Then comes the fun bit – your interrogators pour water up your nose and down your throat, which gives you the pleasant sensation of drowning. Read more about Why we endorse torture

Consider this:

You and a group of others are hiding in a basement. It’s wartime. Enemy soldiers are in the house.

Your baby begins to cry. You fear that the soldiers will hear your child’s cries and give away your whereabouts. You know that these soldiers will, should they find you, kill everyone in the basement, including you and your baby. You realize that the only way to prevent this is to cover your baby’s mouth, but if you do, you will kill the baby.

Is it morally permissible to do this? Read more about Who has the time to be moral?

According to recent work by Nina Mazar and Pankaj Aggarwal of the University of Toronto, cultures of bribery flourish in petri dishes of collectivism. Read more about Why we bribe, but I don't

According to a recent paper in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, beating away in the chest of every Republican is the heart of a Democrat. This can’t be comforting news to many Republicans who will surely insist that there is nothing remotely Democratic about any of their organs, most of all their hearts. Read more about Why (and when) Republicans are actually Democrats