Concept
Morality Binds and Blinds
Morality binds and blinds is Jonathan Haidt's principle that the shared values which hold a group together also limit what its members can see, so that arguments from outside the group sound not merely wrong but suspect.
It is the third principle of The Righteous Mind (2012). Drawing on the sociologist Émile Durkheim, Haidt argues that shared sacred values, stories and practices, which he calls a moral matrix, turn individuals into a team that can trust one another and act together. The same matrix shapes perception: evidence that threatens a sacred value is examined far harder than evidence that supports it, and people on another team seem not just mistaken but ill-intentioned. Binding and blinding are one mechanism with two effects. The principle applies well beyond the large divisions Haidt wrote about: a company culture, a founding family or a professional team can be bound by commitments that make it effective and, at the same time, deaf to certain objections. Haidt's answer is not weaker values but deliberate exposure to people outside the matrix.
A real-life example
A software team in Ankara treats double code review as beyond question. When a new hire proposes a single review for small fixes, the team hears carelessness. Their lead invites the account manager of their largest client to describe what a week-long wait for a small fix cost. The team keeps double review for core code and adopts single review for small changes.
How to use it
- 1Name the two or three things your team treats as beyond question; blind spots tend to sit there.
- 2When an outside objection makes the room bristle, ask which shared value it touched before judging it.
- 3Ask people who do not share your team's commitments what those commitments cost them.