Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Biology of Political Differences (2013)
"Pretending that some middle-ground nirvana can be reached if only we listen to the other side is counterproductive and a source of endless frustration"
Similar to Jonathan Haidt’s Righteous Mind in acknowledging people have "predispositions,” which the authors (three political scientists including the prolific John Hibbing) say are very much rooted (but not exclusively) in genetics and biology. References Pinker and the “Baloney Generator” brain, the brain which constructs after-the-fact justifications for its actions; thus, people have different reflexive responses to what is going on in their social, psychological, and physical environments. Ex. people’s physiological disgust mechanisms can drive their political opinions. People’s predispositions thus make them more conservative or more liberal on classical issues that pertain to politics – that is, if you remove the issue labels, and classify them as what they really are: leadership, in-group punishments, out-group relations/protections, distribution of resources, forms of social behavior, etc. For example, out-group relations could manifest in either isolationism or in hawkism – two different treatments for the same problem of distrusting the World (as has been the evolution of the Republican position). Authors say it is wasting breath to try to convince people on the very far right or very far left of the spectrum; they are so predisposed, it is unlikely they can be swayed; it is better to appeal to get people to understand one another. The people on the other side feel the way they do for a reason given their “reality.” They optimistically point out that social mores do change with time, as approval for interracial marriage has become widely accepted, and as is happening with feelings towards gay marriage (at the time of this writing in 2013). There are a lot of people in the middle, who are either not diehard conservative, not diehard liberal, or just ambivalent, who can also be swayed with persuasion. Authors explain how the conservative mindset focuses on the negatives, and is more prone to identifying things that would be dangerous; it is more the mindset that was probably the original of humanity; conservatives are also more “hard categorizers” than liberal “soft categorizers.” The liberal mindset has been allowed to evolve since we have moved out of caves and hunter gatherer societies. Conservatives prefer things which have been tried already, where liberals are willing to try just about anything (which means there could be a good probability of failure). They point to studies of behavior correlated with political orientation, along with brain scanning studies, to show the biological brain-based basis for differences between liberals and conservatives – the size of certain parts of their brains, which parts of their brains activate, and how they use them. Essentially, conservatives and liberals experience the World in extremely different ways; it could almost be said Conservatives are from Mars and Liberals are from Venus. Not only do they see the World in different ways, but they also interpret what they see differently; not just different preference, but different perceptions. Partisans like to think people on the other side are moral abominations, and if only they could just see the light, then they would switch sides; however, a more fundamental misunderstanding exists between sides. Human personality is based on underlying big 5 traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism. Liberals can be more influenced by social cues, conservatives can ignore them and follow the rules of a given situation. Conservatives exercise restraint in exploring new information, while liberals solicit a lot of new information, but not necessarily with any degree of focus, so it may not produce as many learnings as it could; conservatives dislike an absence of certainty. Some people see threats, others see opportunities, when looking at the same thing. Says that environment also plays a huge role in predispositions (not just biology). “Outrage does not solve challenging issues of governance and it is possible for people to pay close attention to politics without losing emotional control. A more productive, if less viscerally satisfying, response to political difference is to try to understand the source of the views of those who disagree with us so fundamentally.”