#22 - Exploring Moral Judgment and Individual Decision-Making with Dr. Baron
Introduction
Welcome to “The Elements of Being” podcast, where I dissect and explore the minds and habits of psychologists, filmmakers, writers, and industry icons. Essentially, we examine the mental and emotional narratives and processes that steer the social stream of consciousness….Truly a chance to geek out over the psychology behind human behavior. Each episode is a glimpse into the trends and patterns of human behavior and the underlying influences that navigate us into different directions. Whether we focus primarily on nutrition or the unconscious, guests share insights, thought-provoking lessons, the nuances of creativity, and the elements of being… us.
In the spirit of the 2020 US presidential election, Dr. Jonathan Baron and I discuss moral judgment and individual decision-making in today’s episode. Dr. Baron is the founding editor of the open-access journal Judgment and Decision Making and has served on the editorial boards of several other journals. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Association for Psychological Science, and was the President of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making.
Dr. Baron's work has occurred primarily within the field of judgment and decision making, a multidisciplinary area that applies psychological principles to problems in economics, law, business, and public policy. This field began by contrasting human decision behavior to individual decision-making and judgment theories, such as probability theory and expected utility. Baron's research has extended the focus of judgment and decision-making to social problems in resource allocation and ethical decision-making. Among the concepts associated with his work are omission bias (the tendency to excuse acts of omission more readily than acts of commission) and protected values (principles on which people are unwilling to accept trade-offs).
Dr. Baron is the author of Thinking and Deciding. The text takes a broad-based, introductory-level view of psychological decision theory and has been used as a textbook.
#22 - Exploring Moral Judgment and Individual Decision-Making with Dr. Baron
He has also authored Morality and Rational Choice, Against Bioethics, and Judgment Misguided. To be honest, I don’t believe this man ever rests. In his youthful 70’s, he is still an electric advocate of the plant-based approach (and you’ll feel his energy today).
In our interview, here’s what we specifically discussed:
-The trends of political polarization and conspiracy thinking.
-The problems of improving everyday decisions as a result of institutional issues.
-Applying general principles of decision analysis.
-The evolution of a person’s social standards.
-Omission bias in politics.
-The cost-benefit analysis of environmental policies.
-The expression of moral and moralistic values regarding the political issues of gay marriage and abortion.
-The role of empathy in the utilitarian point of view.
-The factors that affect moral judgment.
To learn more about Dr. Jonathan Baron and his research, check out https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~baron/!
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Michael Moody—author of the self-improvement book Redefine Yourself: The Simple Guide to Happiness and host of the “The Elements of Being” podcast—is an ordained minister serving Denver and other towns across Colorado. He is a 2023 WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Award winner in both Denver and Chicago (his eighth consecutive year), was named “Best Business of 2024 and 2025” by Three Best Rated, and earned “The Best Wedding Officiant in Commerce City, Colorado for 2024” from Quality Business Awards USA. Since 2012, he has officiated more than 300 weddings.
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