The book expounds on the important insight that people are intrinsically moralistic, critical, and judgmental. Haidt argues that morality is a key difference separating humans from other animals. that it is a natural process we are all designed to “do.” But morality resembles taste – everyone’s taste is different. Taste is influenced by people’s background, how, where, and when they were brought up. Differentiated moral taste means that people often can’t conceptualize another person’s morality. Lack of mental, emotional, or moral empathy and lack of understanding makes it easy for people to be hostile to one another. Blind self-righteousness amplifies their moral conviction.

The book’s American author, Jonathan Haidt, is famous for his work in social and positive psychology specializing in moral psychology, business ethics, and complex social systems. First published in 2012, this is his second book. Following its success, in 2018, he flowed it with, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure.

In this book, Haidt cites the results of his research in neuroscience, genetics, social psychology, and evolutionary modeling to illustrate his perspective on moral psychology in a persuasive manner. Haidt says that his original idea was to give the book the title, The Moral Mind. However, he discovered that people are fiercely defensive of their personal moral conceptions. People are inclined to attack others viewpoints. People will even sacrifice their lives for their morality, demonstrating the importance they place on the maintenance of righteousness. Consequently, he adopted the title, The Righteous Mind.