The purpose of The Righteous Mind is to attempt to discover why people are divided by politics and religion. After several hundred pages of minute analysis of the last quarter century of psychological research, the author discovers that,

"...the explanation is that our minds were designed for groupish righteousness. We are deeply intuitive creatures whose gut feelings drive our strategic reasoning. This makes it difficult—but not impossible—to connect with those who live in other matrices..."

The author explores the foundations of our moral architecture, what he terms the Moral Foundations Theory, pointing to five basic concepts that underlie our political thinking: Caring, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, and Sanctity. In the final analysis,

"Liberal moral matrices rest on the Care/harm, Liberty/oppression, and Fairness/cheating foundations, although liberals are often willing to trade away fairness (as proportionality) when it conflicts with compassion or with their desire to fight oppression. Conservative morality rests on all six foundations, although conservatives are more willing than liberals to sacrifice Care and let some people get hurt in order to achieve their many other moral objectives."

The author suggests that a path to easing political conflict can be found in thinking about the six moral foundations, and trying to figure out which one or two are carrying the most weight in any particular controversy. That's over-simplifying a very detailed and complex book, but that's the gist of it. This is a well-argued book with rock-solid evidence supporting clear and very sensible arguments. Highly recommended--read it, and while you're at it, send copies to your congressmen.