Social Intuitionism

Social intuitionism is the psychological thesis, most closely associated with Jonathan Haidt, that moral judgment is primarily driven by rapid, automatic emotional intuitions rather than by slow, deliberative reasoning. The conscious moral reasoning that follows an initial judgment is largely post-hoc rationalization — a lawyerly defense of a verdict already delivered by the affective system.

The model draws on dual-process theories of cognition to argue that moral reasoning is the servant of moral intuition, not its master. This challenges the rationalist tradition in moral philosophy that treats principled reasoning as the foundation of ethical judgment, suggesting instead that reason is a social tool for persuading others rather than a private tool for discovering truth.

The framework has been extended to explain political polarization: disagreements that appear to be about reasoning are often about which intuitions receive priority, and reasoning serves primarily to justify and communicate those intuitions to others. See also moral psychology, moral emotions, and moral foundations theory.