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Sunday, October 14, 2012

This Is Our Brain On Politics: When we lie to ourselves, we get rewarded with "cocaine."

   

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON POLITICS

Friday, October 12, 2012

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We think we know all about the decisions we make. But when it comes to political choices, decision-making is largely unconscious. 

"This Is Your Brain On Politics" probes the findings of political psychologists to get to the bottom of why we make the choices we do at election time.

GUESTS:

 Larry BartelsBrian NosekMichael Spezio and Drew Westen

HOSTED BY:

 Brooke Gladstone

***

(Alan... continued)



At bottom, we are surprisingly ignorant of our political motivations so that even when we assimilate some measure of factual knowledge, we tend to jettison that knowledge with the passage of time.

The technical phrase for "forgetting" such inconvenient partisan truths is that human beings lack "competent retrospection." 



In similar vein, we now know that partisans (on both sides of the aisle) are quick to spot mendacity when espoused by members of the other party... but become panicky when we catch our own party leaders telling lies. 

 

Remarkably, this panic is relieved when we devise convincing ways to lie to ourselves, thus opening psychological pathways that persuade us our own party leaders were not really lying in the first place. 

 

In fact, when we finally manage to tell ourselves convincing, exculpatory lies, our brains are immediately drenched by massive influx of dopamine, the same chemical surge that delivers cocaine's high


 

In light of such political research, I would like my résumé to show that, personally, I am NOT subject to typical partisan "biases" and therefore do not lie to myself as most Americans do.


Using the data set forth in "This Is Your Brain On Politics," I will note that, unlike most Democrats, I have always known that inflation plummeted under Reagan: in fact it dropped from the highest level of my lifetime to a low, single digit number.

 

On the "other side of the aisle," I have always known -- unlike most Republicans --  that the rate of real income growth for middle class families has been three times faster under Democratic presidents than under Republican presidents. (Truth be told, I did not know that the rate of real income growth for working poor Americans has been 10 times higher under Democratic presidents.)


The fundamental falsehood in American politics is that Republicans are “the responsible guardians" of the economy.

This error is so vigorously defended, so incessantly represented, that The Big Lie is believed by Republicans and Democrats alike. 

 

On May 17, 2012, I deconstructed this overarching falsehood in a  blog post entitled "The Republican Party and Economic Catastrophe" http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/05/republican-rule-and-economic.html 


It is not particularly hard to determine what is true, although it is necessary (as prelude) to believe that Truth exists and, furthermore, it exists in its own right. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagraha

Because Truth is ontologically grounded in the nature of Universe, clamorous opinionization and unexamined political ideology encourage falsification. 

Therefore, those who are most shrill voicing their opinions tend to be the very people who are most wrong.



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