The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

Recommended by Milena Batanova, director of research and evaluation at Making Caring Common, Harvard Graduate School of Education 

Jonathan Haidt’s “The Righteous Mind” helped Batanova better understand some of the things that drive human behavior. Haidt explores where people’s beliefs come from and the logic behind them. When the book came out in 2012, it made The New York Times Best Sellers list.

“I really appreciated his simple yet brilliant synopsis of moral development and dual process theory,” Batanova said. “[It] makes so much sense when trying to explain moral divides driven by things like politics.”