The character arc of Jonathan Haidt
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 19 October 1963 in New York City. Between then and now sit a Yale philosophy degree in 1985, a Pennsylvania doctorate in 1992, a post at the University of Virginia from 1995, the Templeton Prize in Positive Psychology in 2001, a chair at New York University from 2011, four books, and the argument each of them started. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Jonathan Haidt?
He asked where certainty actually comes from.
He read philosophy at Yale, finishing in 1985, then switched to psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, taking a master's in 1988 and a doctorate in 1992. A postdoctoral fellowship at Chicago followed, then a MacArthur Foundation associateship, and in 1995 a job at the University of Virginia, where he stayed for sixteen years and rose to full professor.
The work that made his name is moral psychology. His argument, put simply, is that moral judgment arrives first and the reasoning arrives afterwards to justify it, and that people across cultures draw on a handful of separate moral foundations rather than one. He was given the Templeton Prize in Positive Psychology in 2001. The Happiness Hypothesis came in 2006, The Righteous Mind in 2012.
In 2011 he moved to the Stern School of Business at New York University as Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, an unusual home for a moral psychologist. The Coddling of the American Mind, written with Greg Lukianoff, came in 2018, and The Anxious Generation in 2024, arguing that the rewiring of childhood around smartphones is behind a rise in adolescent distress. That last claim is disputed by other researchers, and the disagreement is now as public as the book. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.
The moments
Jonathan Haidt's timeline.
The 1980s
Philosophy at Yale
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The questions first, before the method for testing them.
Stay in philosophy, or test it
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: switch to psychology, taken, or stay in philosophy. Every book on the line rests on evidence he could only have gathered on the second path.
The 1990s
A doctorate in psychology
Milestone, and it changed everything. He swapped philosophy for psychology to test what philosophy could only assert.
A fellowship at Chicago
Milestone. Three years of being paid to read before he had to teach.
Virginia, for sixteen years
Milestone, and it changed everything. One department, sixteen years, and the whole of the moral foundations work.
The 2000s
The Templeton Prize
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The first outside signal that the argument was landing.
The Happiness Hypothesis
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Ancient wisdom, checked against modern findings, one claim at a time.
The 2010s
A chair at Stern
Milestone, and it changed everything. A moral psychologist, given a chair in a business school. It is not the obvious address.
The Righteous Mind
Milestone, and it changed everything. Judgment first, reasons afterwards. The book that made the argument general.
The Coddling
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Written with a co-author, and argued with from every direction.
The Academy
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The formal recognition, arriving in the middle of the loudest arguments.
The 2020s
The Anxious Generation
Milestone, and it changed everything. A claim about phones and childhood that other researchers dispute. The argument is now as public as the book.
The line reaches today still adding to itself, which is why it is drawn now rather than at the end. What it has set moving is a body of work people argue with loudly, which is a better measure of a researcher than a shelf of agreement would be.
What he wrote
Books by Jonathan Haidt
- 2006
The Happiness Hypothesis
Ten ideas from the ancient world, each checked against modern psychological findings.
- 2012
The Righteous Mind
Why good people are divided by politics and religion. Judgment first, reasons afterwards.
- 2018
The Coddling of the American Mind
Written with Greg Lukianoff, on three ideas he argues are setting a generation up badly.
- 2024
The Anxious Generation
His argument that childhood rewired around smartphones is behind rising adolescent distress. Other researchers dispute it.
Your turn
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Jonathan Haidt: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
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Sources
- Jonathan Haidt, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- NYU Stern School of Business, Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership.
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2019 members.