Mental rigidity in both Parties
Another one of those studies comparing political identification. The study is about extreme attachment to a Party. What about those who strongly identify with humanity with high cognitive complexity and flexibility who don’t identify with a Party? Are their nuanced arguments that account for numerous factors and their interplay ‘extreme?’ Is the Green New Deal extreme? If a living wage extreme? Is corporations paying their fair share extreme? Is addressing the climate crisis extreme? Is transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy extreme? I think we all know the answer to those questions.
“They also found that self-described Independents displayed greater cognitive flexibility compared to both Democrats and Republicans. Other cognitive traits, such as originality or fluency of thought, were not related to heightened political partisanship. […] The aim of this research is not to draw false equivalences between different, and sometimes opposing, ideologies.”
Regarding the mental rigidity phenomenon (+/- tribalism): The bottom line is that we are pretty hardwired to adopt the degrees and domains of mental rigidities our social environment calls for. (That is a key to understanding what I simply call modern EBE / EP. We are quite hardwired to develop and defend multi-faceted ideologies in a way that embodies complex contingent responsiveness to socioecological circumstances; this seems paradoxical, but is not. We are still discovering the intertwined cocktail of mechanisms that allows for this phenomenal responsiveness.) So, if an individual happens to exist in a subculture where +/- anything goes,… Read more »
QUOTE from article: “Past studies have shown that it is possible to cultivate cognitive flexibility through training and education. Our findings raise the question of whether heightening our cognitive flexibility might help build more tolerant societies, and even develop antidotes to radicalization.” “While the conservatism and liberalism of our beliefs may at times divide us, our capacity to think about the world flexibly and adaptively can unite us,” she added.” END QUOTE What SSSM non-EP folks, and also practitioners of pop-spirituality, tend to be way too glib about is that for the above programs to work, anything close to en… Read more »
So why is my blog so simplistic? Given the nuance of the flexible independent, then why do I present so many posts in easy to digest black and white terms? Because winning elections is more important than singing to an elite choir who will vote my way anyway. Yes, most people who identify with a Party see thinks in black and white terms. And they tend to dislike and distrusts elites, be that in Congress which they see as rigged against them, or in universities which they see at those trying to control them. If you want to reach the… Read more »