We all think we’re right most of the time.
Not just about what we think we know, but about what is right. Morally right.
Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that our moral judgements don’t begin with careful reasoning. They begin with a feeling. We find that the rationale usually comes later, to justify the feeling. Often, by creating a narrative that places blame on someone, some place, or something outside ourselves. This then soothes the discomfort we feel internally and restores a sense of being on the moral side.
That’s why disagreements today feel so charged.
When someone challenges our values, it doesn’t feel like a difference of opinion. It feels like a threat.
And the more distance there is, like online arguments, headlines, labels, the easier it becomes to reduce people to positions:
Left or right.
Progressive or Conservative.
Wrong or right.
But something interesting happens when we remove the distance.
Side by Side, Not Face to Face
Walking changes the frame.
When you move alongside someone, rather than debating across from them, your nervous system settles. The conversation softens. There’s space between words.
You notice more about them beyond their views.
The way they help someone whose struggling or share their food.
The story about their family and how they grew up.
Their own personal struggles they faced that helped define who they are and how they see the world.
They stop being a word.
They become a whole human.
Social psychology has long shown that shared goals reduce intergroup tension. When we shift from “me versus you” to “we’re doing this together,” something subtle but powerful happens. Identity expands. and boundaries loosen.
And it’s not forced.
It’s experienced.
Acceptance of Others, Acceptance of Self
Here’s the more revealing part.
Often, the way we judge others mirrors how we judge ourselves. Rigid morality directed outward can often reflect rigid standards we hold ourselves to within.
But when you experience someone as complex, thoughtful in some ways, flawed in others, contradictory at times, it becomes harder to hold black-and-white views of them.
And once we soften towards others, we often soften towards ourselves too.
We allow nuance.
We allow imperfection.
We allow space for growth.
Why This Makes Us Happier
Constant moral outrage is exhausting.
Binary thinking narrows our world.
But shared experience, especially in nature, widens it.
Against that backdrop of everlasting time, our arguments shrink slightly. Perspective returns. Conversations breathe.
Acceptance doesn’t require agreement.
It requires shared experience.
Sometimes the fastest way to become less judgmental isn’t to argue better.
It’s to walk side by side, together.