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Jonathan Haidt is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 and then did post-doctoral research at the University of Chicago and in Orissa, India. He taught at the University of Virginia for 16 years before joining NYU. His research focuses on morality – its emotional foundations, cultural variations, and developmental course. Haidt’s earlier work focused on using moral psychology to bridge the political divide between left and right, and to increase political civility. Since joining the NYU-Stern School of Business, he has been exploring ways to use moral psychology to improve the ethical functioning of organizations (see www.EthicalSystems.org). Haidt is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (2006), and of the New York Times bestseller The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (2012). He was named one of the top global thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine and also by Prospect magazine.

Jonathan Haidt’s fellowship at MPI will dive into the question of whether there is a “moral infrastructure” that would include the norms that can support or hinder economic development. Jonathan wants to improve the way people think about economics and policy issues by showing the role of moral psychology in shaping our economic thinking.