# Professor Jonathan Haidt's work on morality is referenced

1 Faculty News June 2, 2017 ![The New York Times Logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/uat_027320.jpg?itok=W8xBr66g)>

Excerpt from [The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/opinion/donald-trump-poisons-the-world.html?_r=0) -- "People are attracted by goodness and repelled by selfishness. N.Y.U. social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has studied the surges of elevation we feel when we see somebody performing a selfless action. Haidt describes the time a guy spontaneously leapt out of a car to help an old lady shovel snow from her driveway. One of his friends, who witnessed this small act, later wrote: 'I felt like jumping out of the car and hugging this guy. I felt like singing and running, or skipping and laughing. Just being active. I felt like saying nice things about people. Writing a beautiful poem or love song. Playing in the snow like a child. Telling everybody about his deed.'"

[Read more](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/opinion/donald-trump-poisons-the-world.html?_r=0)