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Brain Science Explains Why Talking Politics Is Often So Futile
But, it doesn’t have to be.
Have you ever had a shouting match with someone who doesn’t share your political opinion? Have you ever witnessed one?
If you think about it, these are pretty strange events. Why are people getting so angry? What’s really “on the line” for either of them?
After all, political views are just beliefs. We don’t get furious when people tell us they hate our favorite movie. We don’t start a yelling match when someone tells us they like broccoli when we despise it. And we don’t get up in someone’s face when they like one scoop of sugar in their coffee and we like two.
Our political views are preferences, just like our taste in movies, vegetables, and beverages. So, why do we go bananas when we talk politics?
It turns out that the answer to this question lies in how our brains relate to this kind of information.
The brain science of political beliefs
A study published in 2016 aimed to learn why we often discount evidence that’s contrary to our firmly held beliefs. Lead author, Jonas Kaplan, said, “We wanted to understand what happens in the brain when we resist changing our minds.”
