Do You Suffer from Illusions of Moral Superiority?

Intellectual humility is the antidote

Intellectual humility is the antidote to arrogance and more.

Photo by Karina Carvalho on Unsplash

“Morality is like the temple on the hill of human nature. It is our most sacred attribute.” — Jonathan Haidt

Most of us believe we are better than average. When it comes to driving style, smarts, and modesty, the optimism bias makes us think we are better than the rest.

Self-enhancement is more acute in the moral space — we believe we are more principled than others. Our sense of moral superiority is so distorted that even jailed criminals think they are kinder, more trustworthy and honest than you and me.

I love this because it helps us understand why we are living in a divided era.

We don’t merely overestimate our own moral virtue— we underestimate the moral virtue of those who are not like us.

Why We Feel Morally Superior

“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” 
― Oscar Wilde

A study by Ben Tappin and Ryan McKay not only confirms that most of us judg…