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The usual picture of human morality is a bleak one. Even if we endorse noble principles, we seem prone to falling short of them when swayed by personal interests or unacknowledged emotions. Between Fixed and Fickle provides a more sympathetic perspective on our waywardness: typically, it shows, we can offer articulable reasons for our apparent inconsistencies. Audun Dahl’s account can help us better understand student cheating, supposedly ‘blind’ obedience to authority, and even racial discrimination. Guided by his comprehensive analysis, the psychological study of morality can make a fresh start—and with good reason. -- Paul L. Harris, author of <i>Trusting What You're Told</i> Science cannot dictate morality, but it can help to explain it. Audun Dahl’s terrific book brings to life the latest scientific research on the moral psychology at work in our daily lives. He finds that people's moral values and actions are neither fixed nor fickle but adaptable to changing concerns and circumstances, usually for reasons that are comprehensible if not always defensible. This is science writing at its very best. -- Michael Tomasello, author of <i>A Natural History of Human Morality</i> In this fascinating and compelling book, Audun Dahl takes the reader on a journey through the many vexing questions that morality raises in our lives, including where it comes from, why moral views change across time, and what role reasoning plays in moral decision-making. Between Fixed and Fickle offers cutting-edge research and profound theoretical reflections on why moral judgments are at the core of our existence. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the ongoing debates about morality in historical and contemporary life. -- Melanie Killen, editor of <i>Handbook of Moral Development</i>

Science cannot dictate morality, but it can help to explain it. Audun Dahl’s terrific book brings to life the latest scientific research on the moral psychology at work in our daily lives. He finds that people's moral values and actions are neither fixed nor fickle but adaptable to changing concerns and circumstances, usually for reasons that are comprehensible if not always defensible. This is science writing at its very best. -- Michael Tomasello, author of <i>Becoming Human</i> The usual picture of human morality is a bleak one. Even if we endorse noble principles, we seem prone to falling short of them when swayed by personal interests or unacknowledged emotions. Between Fixed and Fickle provides a more sympathetic perspective on our waywardness: typically, it shows, we can offer articulable reasons for our apparent inconsistencies. Audun Dahl’s account can help us better understand student cheating, supposedly ‘blind’ obedience to authority, and even racial discrimination. Guided by his comprehensive analysis, the psychological study of morality can make a fresh start—and with good reason. -- Paul L. Harris, author of <i>Trusting What You're Told</i> Over the past twenty-five years, the emergent field of moral psychology has, by integrating resources from philosophical ethics and scientific psychology, yielded remarkable advances in understanding the minds and deeds of the moral animal, Homo sapiens. Anyone interested in this inquiry—and that ought to be most everyone—should read Audun Dahl’s insightful and expansive Between Fixed and Fickle. Combining authoritative scientific acumen and a shrewdly observant literary eye, Dahl expertly uncovers the mechanisms behind moral change—how people come to behave badly or well, and how, ultimately, we can behave better. -- John M. Doris, author of <i>Lack of Character</i> In this fascinating and compelling book, Audun Dahl takes the reader on a journey through the many vexing questions that morality raises in our lives, including where it comes from, why moral views change across time, and what role reasoning plays in moral decision-making. Between Fixed and Fickle offers cutting-edge research and profound theoretical reflections on why moral judgments are at the core of our existence. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the ongoing debates about morality in historical and contemporary life. -- Melanie Killen, editor of <i>Handbook of Moral Development</i>

The usual picture of human morality is a bleak one. Even if we endorse noble principles, we seem prone to falling short of them when swayed by personal interests or unacknowledged emotions. Between Fixed and Fickle provides a more sympathetic perspective on our waywardness: typically, it shows, we can offer articulable reasons for our apparent inconsistencies. Audun Dahl’s account can help us better understand student cheating, supposedly ‘blind’ obedience to authority, and even racial discrimination. Guided by his comprehensive analysis, the psychological study of morality can make a fresh start—and with good reason. -- Paul L. Harris, author of <i>Trusting What You're Told</i>

Author Information

Audun Dahl is Associate Professor of Psychology at Cornell University.

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