# Prof. Jonathan Haidt on the implications of a new study using smartphones to track moral judgments

1 Faculty News September 11, 2014 ![WIRED logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_032348.jpg?itok=Wszefc-R)>

Excerpt from [WIRED](http://www.wired.com/2014/09/smartphone-study-moral-psychology/) -- "'This kind of technology could be used to see how communities respond to sociologically relevant events like a terrorist attack, a basketball victory, or extreme weather—all things that seem to pull people together,' [Haidt](http://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/jonathan-haidt) said. For example, he says, New Yorkers often say people were nicer to each other in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. 'If you’re tracking people over time, it would be interesting to see if people do more nice things for each other, if they’re more trusting and cooperative, when the local team wins. If there’s a threat, does everyone band together, or do people band together along ethnic lines or lines of similarity?'"

[Read more](http://www.wired.com/2014/09/smartphone-study-moral-psychology/)

Additional coverage appeared on [Science Magazine](http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2014/09/religious-or-not-we-all-misbehave).