Jonathan Haidt holds the title of Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University's Stern School of Business. He earned his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. Post-doctoral research took him to the University of Chicago and Orissa, India. Prior to his role at NYU-Stern, which began in 2011, he taught at the University of Virginia for 16 years.

He has been recognized as one of the "top global thinkers" by Foreign Policy magazine and one of the "top world thinkers" by Prospect magazine.

Research and Contributions

Haidt's research primarily revolves around morality. This includes its emotional foundations, cultural variations, and developmental course. He started his career studying negative moral emotions like disgust, shame, and vengeance. Later, he shifted his focus to the relatively under-researched positive moral emotions such as admiration, awe, and moral elevation.

He contributed significantly to the field by co-developing the Moral Foundations theory and launching YourMorals.org, a research site. He co-founded HeterodoxAcademy.org which advocates for viewpoint diversity in higher education. Furthermore, he uses his research to foster understanding and respect for differing moral viewpoints, a topic he discusses in his TED talks and on CivilPolitics.org.

Publications

Among his written works are "The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom", "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion", and "The Coddling of the American Mind: How good intentions and bad ideas are setting a generation up for failure", the latter co-authored with Greg Lukianoff.

For more information, you can visit his personal website at www.JonathanHaidt.com.