BB&T Colloquium Features Speaker Jonathan Haidt

On September 30^th, Frank Auditorium was filled and attendees were on the edge of their seats at the BB&T Colloquium on Capitalism, Ethics and Leadership. The event was sponsored by BB&T and hosted by the Center for Leadership, Innovation and Change (CLIC) at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. The fascinating discussion centered on the moral psychology of economic life and strife. 

Featured speaker Jonathan Haidt, is a social psychologist and the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at the NYU-Stern School of Business. Haidt is the author of more than 90 academic articles and two books: The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, and the New York Times bestseller The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. He is in the process of writing his third book and his research examines the intuitive foundations of morality, and how morality varies across cultures of American liberals, conservatives and libertarians. 

In his presentation Haidt asked “How did we get here? Why has capitalism been so morally controversial for the last quarter millennium?” He went on to talk about a tale of two stories about capitalism, with a third story emerging. “We cannot live without stories; big stories tell us what is real and significant”, said Haidt. And he proved to be a masterful storyteller, which is not surprising given that his three TED talks have been viewed more than 3 million times. 

Haidt’s first story described how capitalism is exploitation, business is bad, and the government is good. His second story described how capitalism is liberation, the government is bad, and business is good. 

How do we individually select which story to believe? Should we believe either story? That’s where moral psychology comes into the picture. Haidt discussed six foundations of morality: care/harm, fairness/cheating, liberty/oppression, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, and sanctity/degradation. (Want to know where you fall on the scale? Check out his website at YourMorals.org.) 

During the Q&A session, Haidt addressed a variety questions ranging from shareholder values to “short-termism,” which he says is a huge problem. “It’s easier to be ethical if you have a long-term view,” he said. 

Afterwards, attendees were able to continue the discussion at a dinner reception with Haidt, Smith School Dean Alex Triantis and Daniel Waetjen, group president at BB&T.