HL CHAPTER 4 Intimacy - CH 5 Empathy as the Foundation of Morality

CHAPTER 4 Intimacy
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What are you looking for in a romantic partner?
Note:COSA CERCHI

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(men cared more about youth; women about status),
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the number one factor
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It was kindness. For a lot of people, this means empathy.
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empathy might have evolved in our species to facilitate one-on-one relationships,
Note:RELAZIONI PERSONALI

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I made a case for this: “Where empathy really does matter is in our personal relationships.
Note:DOVA CONTA

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Here as always it’s important to distinguish empathy from understanding.
Note:DISTINZIONE CRUCIALE

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Simon Baron-Cohen.

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he mentions that there are studies on the risks of high empathy
Note:RISCHI

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Vicki Helgeson and Heidi Fritz explore sex differences in the propensity for what they call “unmitigated communion
Note:RISCHIO CROCEROSSINA X LE DONNE

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“an excessive concern with others and placing others’ needs before one’s own.”
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“I can’t say no when someone asks me for help.”
Note:I NO CHE AIUTANO

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overly nurturant, intrusive, and self-sacrificing.”
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women’s greater propensity to anxiety and depression,
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empathy, because of its spotlight nature, is a poor moral guide.
Note:TI FA AGIRE MALE

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empathy can also have negative consequences for those who experience it.
Note:TI FA MALE

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Buddhist texts distinguish between “sentimental compassion,” which corresponds to what we would call empathy, and “great compassion,” which is what we would simply call “compassion.”
Note:DUE COMPASSIONI

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The first is to be avoided, as it “exhausts the bodhisattva.
Note:SENTIMENTI DA EVITARE

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Great compassion is more distanced and reserved,
Note:RISERVATEZZA

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Tania Singer and Olga Klimecki

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compassion does not mean sharing the suffering of the other: rather, it is characterized by feelings of warmth, concern and care for the other,
Note:LA VERA COMPASSIONE

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The neurological difference between the two was explored in a series of fMRI studies
Note:FMRI

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Empathy training led to increased activation in the insula and anterior cingulate cortex
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the medial orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum.
Note:AREE DELLA COMPASSIONE

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When people were asked to empathize with those who were suffering, they found it unpleasant.
Note:SPICEVOLEZZA

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Compassion training, in contrast, led to better feelings
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When experienced chronically, empathic distress most likely gives rise to negative health outcomes.
Note:STRESS

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David DeSteno

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meditation “reduces activation of the brain networks associated with simulating the feelings of people in distress,
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Marco Iacoboni claimed that “affective empathy is a precursor to compassion,”
Note:UN TEMPO SI CREDEVA IN UNA RELAZIONE

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We can’t feel compassion without first feeling emotional empathy.

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Not only can compassion and kindness exist independently of empathy, they are sometimes opposed.
Note:NO LEGAME

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There is a lot of concern about studies that find a decline in empathy in medical students.
Note:IL DOTTORE EMPATICO

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If, while listening to the grieving mother’s raw and unbearable description of her son’s body in the morgue, I were to imagine my own son in his place, I would be incapacitated.
Note:EMPATIA CHE PARALIZZA I CHIRURGHI

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I have always felt that I am very empathetic, and that that has been both a blessing and a curse in my work. I have struggled with burn-out for years
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two medical students who had to shift to other specialties because of the stress of working with parents
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nursing students who were especially prone to empathy spent less time providing care to patients and more time seeking out help
Note:OSYETRICHE EMPATICHE MARTIN HOFFMAN

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The risks of empathy are perhaps most obvious with therapists, who have to continually deal with people who are depressed, anxious, deluded, and often in severe emotional pain.
Note:PSICOLOGI SFINITI

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Freud himself made a similar analogy: “I cannot advise my colleagues too urgently to model themselves
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My friend does get into her clients’ heads, of course—she would be useless if she couldn’t—but she doesn’t feel
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But what about those who are empathized with?
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get the most from doctors who didn’t feel as he did, who were calm when he was anxious, confident when he was uncertain.
Note:I NENEFICI DEL CONTRARIO

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Leslie Jamison

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she also describes, with gratitude, another doctor who kept a reassuring distance and objectivity:
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Frank Jackson

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Mary, a brilliant scientist, who has spent her life stuck in a black-and-white room,
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Mary studies human perception and comes to know everything about the neuroscience of seeing color.
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Mary leaves the room for the first time and looks up to see a bright blue sky.
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some novel qualitative experience—qualia—
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strong metaphysical implications about the nature of the mind,
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you can learn some things through experience that cannot be appreciated in any other way.
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it can be comforting to talk to someone who knows just how you are feeling.
Note:FARE ESPERIENZA FA BENE

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There is a world of difference, after all, between understanding the misery of the person who is talking to you because you have felt misery in the past, even though now you are calm, and understanding the misery of the person who is talking to you because you are mirroring them and feeling their misery right now.
Note:MA QUI L EMPATIA NN CONTA

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What about our relationships with those we love?
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Most people, I assume, want to be loved and understood and cared about.
Note:COMPRESO

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more than they care about other people.
Note:PRIVILEGIATI

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But that isn’t because I want empathic mirroring.

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not because I’m vicariously experiencing her pleasure. Instead it’s because I love her and want her to do well.
Note:NO SPECCHIO MA TRASFERIMENTO

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More generally, we just don’t like empathizing with the sad.
Note:EMPATIA SELETTIVA

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Indeed, many scholars have argued that empathy itself has evolved for the purpose of parenting—
Note:GWNITORI FIGLI DANIEL BATSON

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An obvious starting point here is that good parents understand and love their children.
Note:COMPRENDERE

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parenting also requires an appreciation that the long-term goals of a child do not always correspond
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understanding and compassion, even love, are not all children want.
Note:COSA VOGLIONO

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Stephen Darwall

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we put ourselves in their hands,
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When people who are wronged describe their feelings toward those who harmed them,
Note:VITTIMA E CARNEFICE...TROPPA EMPATIA OSTACOLA LA GIUSTIZIA

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they want the wrongdoer to feel the same pain as the victim.
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Heidi Howkins Lockwood,

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ideally, the sexual harasser should feel what it’s like to be the victim of sexual harassment.
Note:STUPRO

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The victim might believe both that a sincere apology requires the perpetrator understanding what he or she did wrong … and that truly understanding what one did wrong requires having the experience yourself.
Note:COMPRENSIONE ED ESPERIENZA

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Then there is the wish to restore balance.
Note:SENSO DI GIUSTIZIA

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Pamela Hieronymi

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Empathy allows for a perfect eye-for-an-eye correspondence,
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you can’t have both. Chomsky can’t both be intellectually robust and at the same time defend friends at all costs.
Note:CHI NN TI TRADISCE MAI

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Stephen Asma argues for the moral importance of kinship and loyalty,
Note:LEALTÁ E CORRETTEZZA...INCOMPATIBILITÀ

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this clashes with justice and fairness:
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Against Fairness.

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repelled by Gandhi’s rejection of special relationships—of friends and family, of sexual and romantic love. Orwell describes this as “inhuman,”
Note:NO PREFERENZE

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Dickens had an immense social conscience—but he would ridicule those who lacked special feelings for those close to them. His examples include Thomas Gradgrind, the extreme utilitarian,
Note:UTILITARISMO.... TUTTI UGUALI

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It is wrong, many people believe, to treat people differently
Note:CONTRO LE RELAZIONI SPECIALI

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Peter Singer, take this further and argue that it is wrong to favor members of our own species
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As Larissa MacFarquhar points out, Abraham was ready to sacrifice his beloved son;
Note:L ANTIFAMILISMO DI ABRAMO

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Buddha abandoned his family; Jesus was adamant that in order to become his disciple, one must “hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life.”
Note:BUDDAH E GESÙ CONTRO LA FAMIGLIA

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It has effects that almost everyone will agree are wrong.
Note:EMPATIA... LE REGOLE NN SONO UGUALI PER TUTTI

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Self + Close People + Strangers = 100% Now fill in the numbers.
Note:QUANTO TEMPO DEDICHIAMO AGLI ALTRI

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Even if we decide that certain individuals are worthy of special treatment, even here empathy lets us down, because empathy is driven by immediate considerations, making us too-permissive parents and too-clingy friends.
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Empathy as the Foundation of Morality
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Perhaps empathy is like milk. Adults don’t need milk; we do fine without it. But babies need milk to grow.
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empathy as the developmental core of morality.
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Adam Smith and David Hume.
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Martin Hoffman,

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As Michael Ghiselin put it: “Scratch an altruist, and watch a hypocrite bleed.”
Note:I CINICI

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Thomas Hobbes

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Natural selection might be selfish (in a metaphorical sense), but if so, it’s selfish about genes, not individuals.
Note:COSA NN VA NEI CINICI

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confuses the goals of natural selection (again, metaphorically speaking) with the goals of the creatures
Note:CONFUSIONE

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Similarly, there is an obvious evolutionary motivation for sexual intercourse (it leads to children), but this is very different from the psychological motivations
Note:INNAMORAMENTO

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We are naturally kind because our ancestors who were kind to others outlived and outreproduced those who didn’t.
Note:GENTILEZZA

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many animals—and all mammals—care for their offspring,
Note:WAAL

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He finds that chimpanzees will rescue one another when they get in trouble, and sometimes act to increase others’ pleasure and decrease others’ pain.
Note:SCIMMIE

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toddlers do seem to care about others.
Note:BAMBINI E MORALE

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some theorists have argued that brain areas involved in empathy are the product of experience with the world, not what we start off with.
Note:EMPATIA... INNATA O ACQUISITA. CONTROVERSO

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if you stick out your tongue at a baby, the baby is likely to stick out his or her tongue back at you. This can plausibly be seen as reflecting an empathic connection
Note:LINGUA

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This is controversial

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Even days after birth, babies get upset by hearing other babies cry
Note:EMPATIA E DEPRESSIONE

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All these anecdotes and experimental findings can be readily accounted for in terms of caring for others without any sort of empathic feeling.
Note:COMPATIBILE CON AIUTO SENZA EMPATIA

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In one study, rats were trained to press a bar to stop other rats from receiving painful electric shocks.

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BAMBINI SCIMMIE E ANCHE RATTI

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But do these empathic reactions generate moral behavior?
Note:EMPATIA E MORALE?

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If I feel your pain but don’t know that it’s your pain—if I think that it’s my pain—then I’m not going to help you.
Note:CONOSCENZA

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when children help others, is it because they are feeling their pain?
Note:LA DOMANDA CHIAVE

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Paul Harris

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the evidence for this connection isn’t there.
Note:NO CONNECTION

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young children are capable of helping without showing any distress.
Note:AIUTO

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you see the victim’s face contorted in anguish, but you don’t see anguish in the consolers,
Note:VITTIMA E CONSOLATORE

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right now, as best we know, empathy is not like milk.
CONC E. NN È NÉ COND NECESSARIA NÉ SUFF X AIUTARE

Chapter 10 Cooperation without God

Chapter 10 Cooperation without God
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In the summer of 2007, I visited Denmark’s attractive second city, Aarhus, and was surprised to see that anyone can borrow a bicycle,
Note:FIDUCIA NELLA TERRA SENZA DIO

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Denmark tops the lists of societies high on cooperation, social cohesion, and public trust.
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one of the least religious societies on earth.
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If you have a financial dispute with a stranger, you go to an independent court. Trusting the institutions
Note:I SUPPLENTI DI DIO

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policing authorities, and effective contract-enforcing mechanisms in modern societies—
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Big Gods were replaced by Big Governments.
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Big Eye

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Climbing the Ladder of Religion, Then Kicking It Away
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if you have followed the reasoning in this book, you can see that secular societies are really an outgrowth of prosocial religions.
Note:SECOLARISMO COME SCRESCENZA DELLE RELIGIONI

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Marcel Gauchet

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it was the monotheistic religions that reduced the role of the sacred and the supernatural from the material world, confining them to a supreme
Note:PRIMA CONTINUITÀ

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Second, the monotheisms introduced another innovation—other gods were denigrated as false gods.
Note:SECONDA CONTINUITÀ

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Universal monotheisms created two new concepts in human thought: individual free choice and collective humanity.
Note:DUE CONCETTI... INDIVIDUALISMO E UMANITÀ

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People not born into these religions could, in principle, choose to belong (or remain outside) without regard to ethnicity, tribe or territory.

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outsourcing religion’s functions to new forms of government.
Note:LA SECOLARIZZAZIONE

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Replacing God with Government and Vice Versa
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in peoples’ minds, gods and governments occupy a similar niche.
Note:DIO E IL GOVERNO

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Big Gods reign supreme in places where government is corrupt
Note:CORRUZIONE

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gods and governments both have surveillance
Note:SORVEGLIANZA

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they can both provide comfort in the face of adversity
Note:RISCHIO

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Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart

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strong and stable secular institutions erode religion.
Note:EROSIONE

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Religion has declined most steeply in welfare states such as Denmark, Sweden, and France.
Note:WELFARE

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psychologists Aaron Kay, David Moscovitch, and Kristin Laurin

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Their work explores the basic need to feel “in control.”
Note:SENTIRE IL CONTROLLO

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When people feel that their grip on life is shaken, they turn to external forms of control: it could be God, or it could be the government.
Note:CONTROLLO ESTERNO

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faith in government and faith in God appear to compensate for each other.
Note:LA COMPENSAZIONE

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These findings show, contrary to popular belief, how intertwined divine and secular authority can be. We cannot understand religious belief in isolation from secular cultural beliefs.
Note:LA CONNESSIONE LA SUCCEDANEOTÀ..POSSIBILE SPIEGA DELLE PAURE

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The Problem of Disbelief
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Disbelief is a puzzle—historically, when people lost faith, they gravitated to new religions.
Note:L ENIGMA DELL ATEISMO.... PERCHÈ NN C ERA?

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while self-reflectively there are atheists, intuitively, everyone is a theist.
Note:L OPINIONE DEGLI PSICOLOGI

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Paul Bloom,

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People everywhere naturally have some tacit supernatural beliefs;
Note:TUTTI CREDONO ALLO SPIRITO.... ESEMPIO LA MENTE

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even the most sophisticated of cognitive neuroscientists might believe, at an intuitive level, that their mental life is something above and beyond their physical nature.
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What Bloom is referring to here is an intuitive belief in mind-body dualism—
Note:TUTTI SIAMO DUALISTI

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Pascal Boyer explains: Some form of religious thinking seems to be the path of least resistance for our cognitive systems.
Note:LA RELIGIOSITÀ COME VIA NATURALE

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philosopher Robert McCauley compares religion’s intuitiveness to science’s counterintuitiveness. In Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not,
Note:INTUITIVITÀ DELLA RELIGIONE

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atheism is more widespread and enduring than expected if it was merely driven by effortful rejection of intuitive theism.
Note:OBBIEZIONE... C È QUALCOSA CHE RIGUARDA IL QUI ED ORA

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mind-blind atheism, which is caused by deficits in understanding God’s
Note:L ATEO SCANCERTATO

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analytic atheism; which arises when habitual analytic thinking encourages religious skepticism;
Note:L ATEO SCETTICO

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apatheism, which is a feeling of indifference to religion found in places where people enjoy safe and secure environments;
Note: L ATEO APATICO

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Mind-Blind Atheism
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We saw that when people pray to God, the same mind-reading or mentalizing skills that help people understand other people are recruited
Note:EMPATIA

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Of all these symptoms, perhaps the most critical aspect of the autism spectrum that causes social difficulties is selective deficits in reasoning about the mental states of others.
Note:ESTRANEITÁ E ASOCIALITÀ COME FONTE DELL ATEISMO

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an association between autism and religious disbelief.
Note:ATEO AUTISTICO

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evidence that autistic individuals seem to be indifferent to religion,

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Jesse Bering
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What is noticeably absent in the autistic accounts is a sense of deep interpersonal relations between the worshipper and the deity,
Note:ADORAZIONE

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Bering cites Temple Grandin, a well-known autistic and animal rights activist:
Note:ANIMALISTI

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Will Gervais,

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if God is transformed from a personlike agent to an abstract impersonal force, then it will lose its intuitive appeal. Faith in such a God will erode.
Note:PROVA: IL DIO DEI FILOSOFI È SNOBBATO

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one conclusion: mind-blind people are not enamored by the idea of a personal God.
Note:CONCLUSIONE CERTA

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Analytic Atheism
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the idea found in Boyer’s quote earlier—that of implicit theism, arising effortlessly but vetoed by reflection and deliberation.
Note:TESISMO IMPLICITO DA SVELLETE CON LA RIFLESSIONE

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Their motto is, “shoot first, ask questions later.”
Note:COME FUMZIONA LA MENTE

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Blaise Pascal had. He said: It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason.
Note:CUORE E MENTE

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Pascal was not fond of the attempts by many medieval Christian theologians, known as Christian Apologetics, to prove the existence of God
Note:DIMOSTRAZIONI MEDIEVALI

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There are many examples of erroneous intuitions being corrected by reflection.
Note:INTUIZIONE E RIFLESSIONE

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people who are habitual intuitive thinkers should be more religious
Note:CONGETTIRA TESTABILE

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any long-term habits or experiences that cultivate analytic thinking also should encourage religious doubt.
Note:ALTRO TEST

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Religious belief is the brainchild of intuitive thinking,
Note:ESITO... CONFERMA

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Amitai Shenhav, David Rand, and Joshua Greene

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Participants who were more likely to overrule the intuitive answer were also less likely to believe in God.
Note:OVERRULE

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the lower levels of belief among the analytic thinkers were not because they had higher education levels, more general intelligence, different personality profiles, or higher income, or were older or younger, more liberal politically,
Note:COSA NON CONTA

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analytic thinkers tend to lose their religious fervor even if they were raised in a religious environment.
Note:FERVORE

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Gordon Pennycook

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belief in a distant, nonintervening God (Deism), and the belief that the universe and God are identical (Pantheism).
Note:IN COSA CREDE L ANALITICO

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Viewing The Thinker compared to Discobolus produced a dip in religious belief.
Note:IL PENSATORE

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exposure to university education also in turn undermines religious belief.

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there is a small but reliable connection between measures of general intelligence and lower levels of religious belief. Intelligence fosters critical thinking, which in turn contributes to religious skepticism.
Note:INTELLIGENZA

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we would not expect this connection to be overwhelming, because, as I said earlier, other factors feed the flames
Note:EFFETTO TRASCURABILE

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Apatheism and InCREDulous Atheism
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as social and economic conditions improve, societies become, in the words of Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, existentially secure.
Note:SICUREZZA

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nations with stronger existential security are less religious
Note:PIPPA NORRIS

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over time,
Note:NESSO

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Al Franken,

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I don’t care what kind of nonsense you believe, I can tell you that religion will be a crutch
Note:GRUCCIA

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thinkers of modernity, from Freud to Feuerbach, would have agreed with Franken:
Note:FREUD

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Reason, logic, or science have little to give us when we face intense anxieties
Note:ANSOA

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death and suffering intensify religiosity
Note:MORTE

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Chris Sibley and Joseph Bulbulia compared levels of religious faith before and after a devastating earthquake
Note:DISASTRI

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Aaron Kay and his colleagues, who showed that, like reminders of death, incidental reminders of randomness also amplify belief in God.
Note:IL CASO

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Lee Kirkpatrick

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attachment figures providing safety and comfort
Note:DIO

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This disbelief is not so much an opposition to religion, but an indifference to
Note:INDIFFERENZA

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Rauch extols the virtues of apatheism as a principled and tolerant
Note:TOLLERANZA

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InCREDulous atheism.

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Joseph Henrich,

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When observers witness acts that reveal sincere commitment or belief—that is, when actions speaker louder than words—they are more inclined to see these beliefs as genuine and more willing to adopt them.
Note:IN CERCA DI UNA REGOLA... EFFETTO VALANGA

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Strong, reliable governments might be another potent factor underlying inCREDulous atheism.
Note:GOVERNO

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supplant religion.

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Bringing the Varieties of Atheisms Together
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mind-blind atheism does not get religion; analytical atheism rejects religion; apatheism and inCREDulous atheism are indifferent toward religion.
Note:RIASSUNTO

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consider why scientists tend to be much less religious than the general population.
Note:ESEMPIO DELLO SCIENZIATO

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analytic thinkers are drawn to science

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willingness to see the world in material terms,
Note:AUTISMO

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scientists come together in the relative security

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in human brains, religion has a head start over atheism and science.
Note:SENSO RELIGIOSO

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Consider literacy as an analogy. Illiteracy is more intuitive and easier to arise than literacy,
Note:ANALFABETISMO

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The Future of Religion
Note:tttttttt

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it is far from clear to me that secular societies will win
Note:CHI VINCE?

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prosocial religions have one crucial advantage over secular ones—the demographic windfall of more children.
Note:DEMOGRAFIA

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Today, most of the world remains religious,
Note:OGGI

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We don’t know enough to forecast
IGNORANZA

Chapter 9 From Religious Cooperation to Religious Conflict

Chapter 9 From Religious Cooperation to Religious Conflict
Note:9@@@@@@@@@@

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Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion. —Khalil Gibran
Note:GIBRAN

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how much of a role does religion play in violent conflicts? Critics of religion think that it is a major cause, and there is of course no shortage of examples, historical and contemporary: the Crusades, the early Islamic conquests, the sixteenth-century Catholic-Protestant religious wars, violent Jihadi campaigns of today, Hindu-Muslim violence, Lebanon of the 1970s and 1980s, Bosnia in the early 1990s, Northern Ireland. With these examples in mind, Richard Dawkins argues: Religious faith deserves a chapter to itself in the annals of war technology, on an even footing with the longbow, the warhorse, the tank, and the hydrogen bomb.
Note:LA POSIZIONE CRITICA: RELIGIONE PRIMA CAUSA DI GUERRA

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they offer counterexamples of violent conflicts motivated by secular ideologies that lack a religious dimension: the two World Wars in the twentieth century (including the carnage caused by Fascism and the Nazis), Stalin’s and Mao’s purges, and the genocidal Pol Pot regime, to name a few. Earlier, starting in 1915, the Committee for Union and Progress, known as the Young Turk Regime, Westernizers who wanted to reform and secularize the ailing (religiously organized) Ottoman Empire, carried out the first genocide of the twentieth century by annihilating most of the Armenian population as well as depopulating the rest of the Ottoman Christians from their ancestral lands.
Note:PRIMA RISPOSTA DEGLI APOLOGETI

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Moreover, defenders of religion point out that some of the sins attributed to religion are in fact caused by something else that gets entangled with religion. William James, one of the great founders of modern psychology who took a great interest in religion, put it this way: The baseness so commonly charged to religion’s account are thus, almost all of them, not chargeable to religion proper, but rather to religion’s wicked practical partner, the spirit of corporate dominion.
Note:SECONDA RISPOSYA

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If we take all the violent conflicts we know of in a given historical period, and assess the degree to which religious divisions were a factor, what would we find? Such studies are rare, but in the Encyclopedia of Wars, Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod attempted one such comprehensive analysis. They surveyed nearly 1,800 violent conflicts throughout history. They measured, based on historical records, whether or not religion was a factor, and if so, to what degree. They found that less than 10 percent involved religion at all.
Note:10%

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In a related “God and War” audit commissioned by the BBC, researchers again scrutinized 3,500 years of violent
Note:SECONDO ESAME

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In the end, religion was a factor in 40 percent of all rated violent conflicts, but rarely as the key motivator of the conflict. Religion is an important player, but rarely the primary cause of wars and violent conflicts.
Note:ccccccccc

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Sharpening the Question: Three Clarifications about Religion and Conflict
Note:ttttttttt

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In the popular imagination, there are the tolerant religions (Buddhism gets a lot of votes, and of course, the pacifist Quakers!) and there are intolerant religions (the fundamentalist strains of the Abrahamic faiths).
Note:RELIGIONE DI PACE

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Today, many people, with more seriousness than Franken, think that radical Islam is the “problem religion” of the twenty-first century, but ten centuries earlier, it was Christianity (mainly Catholicism), and Islamic Spain was a cosmopolitan center of many faiths, a far more tolerant society than medieval Christendom. If some religions are inherently more violent than others, how do we explain these changes within a religious tradition?
Note:ccccccccccc

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Religion and Its “Wicked Partners”
Note:tttttttt

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We wanted to know: do people who are more religiously devoted scapegoat other religious groups more? Or less? The answer, it turned out, depends on teasing apart “religious devotion” from its “wicked partners.”
Note:DISCERNERE NELLE RELIGIONI: ESCLUSIVITÀ DOGMATISMO PREGHIERA

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We also considered what James called religion’s wicked intellectual partner, the “spirit of dogmatic dominion.” We got a measure of religious exclusivity: “My God (beliefs) is the only true God (beliefs).”
Note:ccccc

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Hansen and I found that, after matching people on age, gender, occupational status, and other factors, exclusivity increased the odds of scapegoating. No surprise there—more dogmatic people are more scapegoating of other religions. But what was more interesting, holding constant exclusivity, was that prayer frequency reduced the odds of scapegoating.
Note:cccccc

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Religion inevitably contains, reflects, and reveals all that is within the realm of humanity: the good and the bad. It is like any other facet of human civilization: some of it is noble and inspirational, much of it is nonsensical and even dangerous.
Note:ALLPORT

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Religious tendencies contribute to intolerance and violence in at least three ways. The first one involves the workings of supernatural monitoring as a group-building social device. This leads to a sliding scale of distrust toward those who fall outside of one’s own supernatural jurisdiction. Second is the social bonding power of religious participation and ritual that could exacerbate conflict between groups. Third, religion fosters sacred values, making them immune to trade-off,
Note:LE TRE VIE DELL'INTOLLERANZA

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The Outer Limits of Supernatural Monitoring
Note:tttttttttt

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Social cohesion inevitably involves setting up boundaries between those who can be trusted and those who cannot. After all, and despite some theological teachings about universal love and indiscriminate compassion, a religious community would not be a cooperative community if there were no social boundaries.
Note:I CONFINI DELLA FIDUCIA

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Azim Shariff and I tested this idea in the well-known Dictator Game.
Note:TESTARE L'IPOTESI DEL DIO ONNISCIENTE

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If Christian folk were good theologians, they would follow Christian doctrine and be “Good Samaritans,” being generous equally with everyone. But they were not. Christian participants primed with thoughts of God were most generous toward the Christian receiver, less generous toward a stranger with unknown religious affiliation, and least generous toward the Muslim receiver
Note:CCCCC

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While this result is not exactly an indication of intense hostility toward religious outgroups, it does show that making supernatural monitoring salient does lead to a discriminant form of generosity that is sensitive to group boundaries.
Note:CCCC

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Religious Participation, Social Solidarity, and Conflict
Note:tttt

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There is a common belief that social ties are inherently good, and indeed there is a great deal of evidence showing that people with strong community ties are healthier, happier, and more prosocial.
Note:IL LATO POSITIVO DELLE RELAZIONI FORTI

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The same processes that build community also open the door for exclusion to those who are seen as not belonging, and often, violent opposition to those who are seen as threatening. This could be called the social solidarity hypothesis of intergroup violence.
Note:IL LATO OSCURO

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In a series of experiments, psychologists Adam Waytz and Nicholas Epley illustrate how this seeming paradox enables a particularly toxic form of an intergroup attitude: dehumanization of socially distant others.
Note:DEUMANIZZAZIONE

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Who dehumanizes more: people who feel socially disengaged or socially connected? Their results were counterintuitive but decisive: feelings of stronger social connection to close others led to more dehumanization and harsher moral judgment of socially distant others.
Note:cccccc

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Suicide attacks come in waves, with one act of self-sacrifice inspiring others, creating cultural cycles of violent martyrdom. What better way to inspire and mobilize one’s community than to lay down one’s life for a cause? As an extreme form of parochial altruism
Note:KAMIKAZE

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We found that those who attended mosque often, compared to those who attended rarely or never, were twice to three-and-a-half times more likely to support suicide attacks against the perceived enemy (Israelis). This clearly supports the social solidarity hypothesis.
Note:IL SUICIDA È SOCIALMENTE ATTIVO

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No doubt, then, religious practices and rituals can add fuel to conflict. But it is important to emphasize that religious participation can also be coopted to work for greater inclusiveness.
Note:ATROCITÀ E INT

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In a pioneering study, a team of economists led by David Clingingsmith wanted to know what effects, if any, participation in the hajj—the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca—has on social attitudes toward various groups. Are people transformed by this powerful experience? This annual pilgrimage brings together millions of practicing Muslims from all over the world and all walks of life into the holy city of Mecca to devote themselves to prayer, fasting, and other ascetic practices.
Note:COME TI TRASFORMA ANDARE ALLA MECCA?

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Clingingsmith’s findings were complex and wide ranging, but they told a consistent story: hajj participation led to more tolerance toward Muslims and nonMuslims alike. It increased endorsement of equality, harmony, and peace among different ethnic and religious groups. Participation also encouraged more favorable attitudes toward women and their right to education and jobs.
Note:CCCCC

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It is only in political contexts where there is asymmetric conflict and there are strong feelings that one’s group is under threat that altruism turns violent. In less conflict-prone contexts, when there is no target to attack or adversary to scapegoat, religious attendance would be more about sacrificing and less about attacking.
Note:IL CONTESTO INDIRIZZA IL COMPORTAMENTO DEI RELIGIOSI

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there is the nature of the religious participation itself. In the case of the former, religious participation was local—it reflected how often Palestinians attended mosque or Jewish settlers remembered attending synagogue in their local neighborhoods. In the hajj, in contrast, participation is global by its very nature. It’s an opportunity for Muslims to meet and interact with other Muslims of all stripes from all over the world.
Note:PARTECIPAZIONE LOCALE O GLOBALE

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Religious ritual is typically enacted in a local context and cements ties with one’s immediate neighbors.
Note:CCCCC

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Religion and the Sacred: Negotiating the Non-Negotiable
Note:TTTTTT

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Finally, a third path from religion to conflict is something that religions are particularly good at: the creation of sacred values.
Note:IL SACRO

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Scott Atran and Jeremy Ginges explain: Ample historical and cross-cultural evidence shows that when conflict is framed by competing religious and sacred values, intergroup violence may persist for decades, even centuries. Disputes over otherwise mundane phenomena (people, places, objects, events) then become existential struggles, as when land becomes “holy land.” Secular issues become sacralized and nonnegotiable.
Note:GUERRA SANTA..E PERSISTENZA DEI CONFLITTI

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In one study among Iranian Muslims, reminders of death increased support for suicide attacks against Americans. However, when also reminded of Islamic compassionate values (“Do goodness to others because Allah loves those who do good,”), reminders of death decreased support for anti-American suicide attacks.
Note:TUTTO DIPENDE DAI VALORI SU CUI PUNTARE

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All of this tells us that parts of the religious bundle can create and intensify conflict, but somewhere in the same bundle there lie seeds that can be coopted to soften and overcome conflict.
AMBIVALENZA

Striscia azzurra di voglio bene

Striscia azzurra ti voglio bene

Ogni qualvolta scarrozzo sulla riviera ligure e noto la sfilza di parcheggi gratuiti mi viene un coccolone. L’assurda regola di città con carenza cronica di parcheggi sembra essere: chi prima arriva meglio si accomoda.

Immaginatevi se l’adottasse anche il panettiere.

Un giorno, giuro, sono andato fino ad Alassio per tornarmene con la coda tra le gambe e centinaia di euro in tasca senza poter scendere dall’auto!

Ma lo capisco, lì le amministrazioni sono prevalentemente di sinistra e “far pagare” una risorsa, per quanto rara, non rientra nella mentalità corrente.

***

Quanto sopra l’ho scritto l’anno scorso ma avrei potuto scriverlo anche l’anno prima e l’anno prima ancora.

Oggi però non potrei più scriverlo.

Dopo il rientro dalle vacanze, è partito a Varese il “piano parcheggi” che significa: tutto a pagamento.

In altri termini, a Varese non esisterà più un parcheggio gratuito, neanche per chi deve prendere al volo una michetta.

Sono incazzato, sono turbato, sono spiazzato, sono rattristato, sono sconfortato, ho voglia di urlare. Ma perché? Solo ed esclusivamente perché una cosa del genere l’ha fatta un’amministrazione di sinistra (e io tifo destra a prescindere)!

L’ha realizzata il sindaco di sinistra cosicché non potrò più riformulare l’ “ alto laio ligure”, un mio personale cavallo di battaglia.

Certo, la sinistra, per quanto s’imbelletti, non si libererà mai del tanfo di burocrazia che la pervade come il tanfo di selvatico pervade le capre: e allora giù con i permessi, le esenzioni, le eccezioni, le esimenti, i casi di necessità… giù con ogni complicazione di sorta fino a snaturare il po’ di buono che aveva fatto.

Sia come sia la questione è finalmente depoliticizzata. Se persino la sinistra si è convinta a bastonare i “parcheggiati”! Se l’ha capito anche lei – sebbene come al solito in ritardo – se davvero è accaduto questo miracolo, forse un giorno capirà persino… persino la Lega.

***

Da questa decisione tardiva ne avrà beneficio tutta la circolazione. Per esempio, sia il buon senso che le ricerche empiriche ci dicono che i parcheggi a pagamento favoriscono il carpooling poiché l’utente di questo servizio puo’ suddividere il nuovo onere.

E, per favore, non preoccupiamoci dei prezzi, se il prezzo è giusto il cliente compra volentieri. E’ una legge universale.

Certo… se fino ad ora hai fatto credere che esisteva Babbo Natale uscire dall’allucinazione collettiva è sempre duro per tutti.

Tuttavia, lo ripeto, il parcheggio a pagamento resta la leva ideale per riformare il traffico, la riduzione del quale non deriva mai da “meno viaggi” ma da “viaggi più brevi”.

Lo sapevate che il 30% delle auto che girovagano per la città sono alla ricerca di un parcheggio? Ed evito di riferire i tempi medi sprecati per trovarlo, o le distanze percorse a questo fine. Nelle grandi città, ma non solo, si tratta di numeri impressionanti.

Al punto che città come Milano cercano di sfuggire alla morsa consentendo il libro parcheggio sui marciapiedi. Non funziona. La cosa produce solo un piccolo è breve sollievo per quegli automobilisti a cui capita quel giorno di essere fortunati, ma produce un costo per tutti gli altri, pedoni compresi.

C’è sempre il burbero assessore rosso col cipiglio che propone: meno parcheggi, meno traffico.

E’ il solito vizietto di pianificare. Si fissino i prezzi giusti  e lasciamo decidere agli interessati, per favore. Il nostro cervello (soprattutto quello di un burbero assessore rosso col cipiglio) è troppo piccolo per fare un piano sensato in una materia tanto complessa.

Pensate poi al parcheggio gratuito che spesso un datore di lavoro offre al suo dipendente, di solito il datore di lavoro è un’amministrazione pubblica. L’idea che il parcheggio debba essere gratuito non ci fa percepire che siamo di fronte ad un fringe benefit da tassare a tutti gli effetti in quanto tale. E’ ovvio che  chi elude il fisco con trucchetti del genere l’ultima cosa che desidera è che la cosa venga a galla, magari indirettamente quando si rendono tutti gli altri parcheggi a pagamento.

***

Una buona riforma dei parcheggi dovrebbe contemplare almeno quattro misure.

Primo, tutti i parcheggi devono essere a pagamento.

Secondo, le tariffe devono essere correlate alla domanda e all’offerta (orari di punta eccetera).

Terzo, tutte le risorse devono andare alle amministrazioni locali ed essere destinate esclusivamente al miglioramento delle strade.

Quarto (la più importante), rimuovere ogni vincolo ai costruttori relativo ai parcheggi condominiali.

Meditiamo per un attimo sul quarto punto perché ad alcuni sfugge. Eppure, una volta che i parcheggi hanno le loro tariffe di mercato non ha più senso richiedere parcheggi condominiali, sarebbe un mero spreco! Noi non chiediamo alle cartolerie di vendere anche il pane, sebbene sia un bene essenziale. Questo perché lasciamo al sistema dei prezzi stabilire chi deve vendere e quanto pane va venduto.

Vincolare la costruzione delle case alla costruzione di parcheggi impenna poi i già esosi prezzi del mercato immobiliare penalizzando i clienti più deboli e favorendo l’orrenda dilatazione della periferia che sfuma negli altrettanto orrendi quartieri dormitorio (tutti dotati di ampio parcheggio).

Come se non bastasse, ostacola la ristrutturazione dell’esistente: una scelta molto più agevole se sgravata da una serie di obblighi collaterali.

Nella Silicon Valley secondo voi i parcheggi sono gratuiti?, ed esiste laggiù forse l’obbligo di costruire parcheggi quando si costruisce una casa? La risposta, ovviamente, è un doppio no.

Siamo sicuri poi che l’auto di proprietà sia un dogma? Certo che se spendo una vita di risparmi per comprarmi una casa con annesso parcheggio – ora non posso agire altrimenti – a quel punto non mi faccio mancare certo l’auto. Ma se il parcheggio condominiale non esiste e i parcheggi sono a pagamento può darsi anche il caso che mi organizzi diversamente.

Il parcheggio a pagamento è anche una soluzione di mercato al problema dell’inquinamento e, più in generale, del global warming. Ai soggetti più preoccupati da questa minaccia basterà aumentare le tariffe. Forse la cosa non è simpatica ma quando si parla di global warming le soluzioni all’ordine del giorno – specie quelle proposte da quei simpatici tipetti che vorrebbero “cambiare il nostro stile di vita”, tipo farci fare una doccia la settimana – sono ben più radicali e inquietanti. E allora, viva le strisce azzurre!

Ma ammettiamolo, la voglia di “parcheggio gratuito” è sia di destra che di sinistra, il cittadino povero è usato come uno scudo umano. Tuttavia, se uno crede davvero che esista un problema di povertà lo affronti nelle sedi opportune in cui si ridistribuisce il gettito fiscale, non quando si discute di parcheggi!

Molta opposizione deriva dalla scarsa familiarità con le modalità di pagamento, ciò lascia qualche speranza. La tecnologia snellirà snz’altro queste formalità. Già oggi a Varese pago con Pyng, ovvero con il cellulare e soprattutto con la possibilità di prolungare la sosta a piacimento senza dover tornare sul luogo fisico dove ho lasciato l’auto.

Andrebbe poi precisato che i parcheggi a pagamento non sono una privatizzazione in senso stretto poiché possono essere gestiti, almeno in una prima fase, anche dall’amministrazione comunale. Poi, quando si scoprirà che esistono gestioni più efficienti (e non c’è nulla di più facile che essere più efficienti di un’amministrazione pubblica), il servizio regolamentato verrà messo all’asta per la felicità dell’assessore al bilancio.

Ma perché tanta opposizione di fronte a tante notizie positive? Ogni novità comporta costi, sono il primo ad ammetterlo. Tuttavia, Machiavelli aveva già capito tutto quando scriveva che non c’è cosa più difficile che introdurre una novità nei comportamenti, questo perché l’innovatore ha per nemici tutti coloro che hanno prosperato nel vecchio mondo, senza avere l’appoggio di chi prospererà nel nuovo, che ancora non conosce la fortuna di cui è destinatario.

Il Papa e il consenso sul riscaldamento globale

Esistono dei tentativi sistematici di sondare l'opinione degli scienziati sul tema del riscaldamento globale. Lo studio principale a disposizione, per esempio, passa in rassegna 11944 abstract classificandoli in sette differenti posizioni rispetto all’affermazione per cui l’ AGV (anthropogenic global warming) esiste.

1. Esplicitamente concorda e ritiene che l'uomo sia la causa principale del riscaldamento globale: 64

2. Esplicitamente concorda ma non quantifica il contributo dell'uomo al riscaldamento globale: 944

3. Implicitamente concorda e non minimizza il contributo dell'uomo al riscaldamento globale: 2910

4. Non prende posizione: 7970

5. Implicitamente rigetta o comunque minimizza il contributo dell'uomo al riscaldamento globale: 54

6. Esplicitamente minimizza anche se non quantifica il contributo dell'uomo al riscaldamento globale: 15

7. Esplicitamente minimizza e ritiene trascurabile il contributo dell'uomo al riscaldamento globale: 9.

In un certo senso, sebbene all’interno di una tendenza chiara, la ricerca conferma una certa divisione (la comunità scientifica è come tutte le altre comunità e produce un cospicuo effetto trascinamento). 

Sì noti poi che a ritenere in modo esplicito che l'uomo sia la causa PRINCIPALE del riscaldamento globale è solo il 1,6% degli studi.

Ci sono addirittura scienziati i quali hanno affermato a chiare lettere che una certa forzatura nelle espressioni usate per giudicare il fenomeno è eticamente ammissibile se ha di mira la sensibilizzazione del pubblico!

E comunque il problema di Papa Francesco (e di molti ambientalisti) con il riscaldamento globale non riguarda tanto la sua esistenza quanto la la reazione ad esso. Le leve più efficaci a nostra disposizione fanno fulcro sul mercato e sulla tecnologia, in questo senso non cambiano affatto i nostri stili di vita (che a volte sembra la vera preoccupazione di certo “ecologismo”), anzi, rischiano di aumentare le diseguaglianze sociali.