First Person Shooters [and Those Who Play Them]

from NBC News Android app.

The headline to the article above, though quite a disappointing teaser for an article that never really explains its title, hints at an idea I've had for a while now. As somebody who enjoys both psychology research and squeezing in some gaming time, I have long been interested in the "Violence in Video Games" debate.

Although I am of the opinion that the violence on video games does not *cause* any anti-social behaviors, I can certainly agree that, for individuals with certain dispositions, adding violent video games into the mix is most certainly not healthy, and allowing children to play them is definitely not a laudable parental decision.

Moral Foundation(s)

TOPPLING THE MORAL PILLARS

Original version of image from Flickr user Erik Daniel Drost

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I recently finished reading Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind: Why good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, and I've felt compelled to write a response since completing even just the first few pages. Although I had been familiar with his Moral Foundations Theory, this reading served as my formal introduction to it, and, to put it lightly, I was left with a very sour taste in my mouth. I have always found myself with an evolutionary psychology mentality, and his moral pillars, or foundations, just do not hit home with me. All six of his foundations seem to be obvious extensions of a Harm-based morality developed by the social primates that humans are, with the splitting into six factors serving only to justify a relativistic view of morality. As a refresher, here are his 6 moral foundations, which he claims are the bases of morality in all cultures, with various cultures emphasizing different foundations to different degrees, resulting in the many cultural definitions of right and wrong:

1. Care vs Harm
2. Fairness vs Cheating
3. Liberty vs Oppression
4. Loyalty vs Betrayal
5. Authority vs Subversion
6. Sanctity vs Degradation