How moral beauty might inform your vote

Lifted Up in Virtue

When I was in high school and just under voting age, I became such a passionate Democrat that, dismayed after the election results came in, I wrote off voting for the next twenty years of my life. I decided I could do more with my time than delve into politics which could very likely lead to absolutely no change at all. Instead, I allowed that youthful passion for life, love, and liberty to lead me to explore the world and strive to help people—meanwhile avoiding all political talk for years to come. I refused to vote, recognizing the futility with which one can be absorbed by politics while passively viewing worldly injustices.

Bioethics

Yet recently, something changed. I came across a bioethics article highlighting our call to choose the option that is more proportionately good and/or less evil than the other option (Pacholczyk, 2020).

This is when it hit me. Proportionality. There is surely virtue and vice on both sides of the political spectrum, but where is the greater proportion of good, and the lesser proportion of evil?

Psychological Evidence

As a professor of psychology, I couldn’t help but consider psychological evidence to support my choice for the greater proportion of good.

Embodiment

One theory, in particular, proposes that we embody everything we hear and see (Shapiro, 2019). Every action someone else performs or word they proclaim vibrates throughout our being. More scientifically speaking, our brain activity mirrors what we see and hear, and that brain activity subsequently informs our actions (Shapiro, 2019). In other words, we embody our environment.

Mirror neurons

This theory of embodied cognition might remind you of a simpler slogan: “Monkey see, monkey do.” And that’s exactly what brain scientists found in the early 1990s. They found that a certain set of a monkey’s neurons, or brain cells, fired not only when that monkey performed a specific action but also when that monkey observed that same action (Rizzolatti et al., 1998). These neurons have been termed “mirror neurons.” They fire when we perform an action and when we see someone else performing that same action. This finding applies to humans, as well. For example, observe someone’s smile, and your mirror neurons involved in producing a smile activate (Likowski et al., 2012).

Empathetic action

A similar phenomenon occurs with what we hear. For example, research suggests that when we hear social words such as “justice” and “liberty,” neurons involved in social interactions activate (Zahn et al., 2007). These neurons also happen to have strong connections to nearby emotional regions, and thus inform our actions (Olson et al., 2013). As such, each word we hear from public figures directly alters our brain physiology, with positive social words presumably increasing empathetic action towards others.

Moral Beauty

In a different, but related line of research, we find that observing virtuous actions or “moral beauty” (Diessner, 2023) make us feel uplifted. This feeling, termed elevation (Haidt, 2000), was first described by Thomas Jefferson in his letter a family friend (Jefferson, 1771/1975). In his letter, Jefferson describes how “fidelity…and generosity” would “elevate [one’s] sentiments,” making one feel “a better man…and…covenant to copy the fair example.” Jefferson was right: When we observe acts of virtue, we are lifted up, and a desire rises within us to do good.

Hate begets hate

The opposite is also true, though. In 1961, social psychologist Albert Bandura conducted the famous “Bobo doll study.” In this study, children who observed an adult treating the “Bobo doll” aggressively subsequently did the same (Bandura, 1961). In other words, the children learned aggressive behavior through observation. With this, we find that Martin Luther King Jr knew what he was talking about when he proclaimed that “hate begets hate” (King, 1964). And, from findings about moral beauty, we know that the opposite is also true: “love begets love.”

President

Lift us up

The president we elect will represent our nation. He or she will be visible and audible to each of us. Her or his words will echo in our hearts and in our minds. Our brain activation will mirror what we see and what we hear. If we see virtue, we are likely to feel elevated. Virtue will lift us up, inspiring us to good; and we are likely to engage in more love and kindness toward others. On the other hand, if we see and hear aggression, we will likely respond with aggression.

Embodiment

Now let’s reflect: What words do you want echoing in your mind? In your children’s minds? And in your children’s children’s minds? Who do you want to embody today, such that you, your loved ones, and future generations reflect their words? Their actions?

Liberty, freedom, and justice

Who will elicit for you, and for others, that feeling that Thomas Jefferson described back in 1771—elevation? Who will lift you up, inspiring you to choose good; to choose life; and to pursue liberty, freedom, and justice for all?

References

Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63, 575-582.

Diessner, R. (2023). Moral beauty. In S. T. Allison, J. K. Beggan, & G. R. Goethals (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies. Springer.

Haidt, J. (2000). The Positive emotion of elevation.

Jefferson, T. (1771/1975). Letter to Robert Skipwith. In M. D. Peterson (Ed.), The Portable Thomas Jefferson (pp. 349-351).

King, M. L., Jr. (1964). A Martin Luther King Treasury.

Likowski, K. U., Mühlberger, A., Gerdes, A. B., Wieser, M. J., Pauli, P., & Weyers, P. (2012). Facial mimicry and the mirror neuron system: simultaneous acquisition of facial electromyography and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 6, 214.

Olson, I. R., McCoy, D., Klobusicky, E., & Ross, L. A. (2013). Social cognition and the anterior temporal lobes: a review and theoretical framework. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 8(2), 123-133.

Pacholczyk, T. (2020, November 17). Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 039: Voting to Make a Difference — The National Catholic Bioethics Center. The National Catholic Bioethics Center.

Rizzolatti, G., Fadiga, L., Gallese, V., & Fogassi, L. (1996). Premotor cortex and the recognition of motor actions. Cognitive brain research, 3(2), 131-141.

Shapiro, L. (2019). Embodied cognition. Routledge.

Zahn, R., Moll, J., Krueger, F., Huey, E. D., Garrido, G., & Grafman, J. (2007). Social concepts are represented in the superior anterior temporal cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(15), 6430-6435.