Dr. Kurt Gray

And I lock the door at the last second.

And I unroll my window a little bit to apologize.

And then he reaches into my window as I'm apologizing.

He's trying to unlock the door.

I'm slapping his hand away while apologizing.

It's like a very awkward season two, right?

Sorry, great with distance.

Eventually, my friend in the backseat, she holds up a cell phone, which was still rare at the time.

She says, if you don't stop, I'll call the cops.

He stops and says, yeah, you call the cops, and I'll tell them what you did.

This comment was so strange to me because to me it was obvious that I was the victim.

He was literally slacking me around, literally threatened to kill me.

And yet he says that the cops would be on his side, right?

That he feels righteous.

And I realized, you know, through time, through my research especially, I realized that we both felt convinced that we were the victims in that situation.

And that feeling of threat of harm gave us the moral conviction that we were right.

It's so self-evident to us that our moral convictions are true, right?

Your opinion on immigration or abortion or taxes.

But then someone else can have exactly the opposite opinion and also think that they are absolutely true.

Scientists haven't tracked feelings and outrage per se, but lots of other indicators do suggest that we are more outraged and more polarized than ever.