The psychological traits that shape your political beliefs Dannagal G. Young
I’m a political and social psychologist.
I study how people understand the world
and what this means for society
and for democracy …
which, as it turns out, is quite a lot.
Some people see the world
as safe and good,
and this allows them
to be OK with uncertainty
and to take time to explore and play.
Others are acutely aware
of threats in their environment,
so they prioritize order
and predictability
over openness and experimentation.
In my academic research,
I study how these two approaches
shape how we think and feel
about everything from art to politics.
I also explore how political elites
and partisan media
use these very differences
to engender hatred and fear
and how the economics of our media system
exploit these same divides.
But after studying this,
I have come away not with a sense
that we are doomed to be divided
but that it’s up to us
to see both sets of traits
as necessary and even valuable.
Take for example two men who have been
so influential in my own life.
First, my late husband, Mike.
He was an artist who saw the world
as safe and good.
He welcomed ambiguity
and play in his life.
In fact, we met through improv comedy
where he taught improvisers
to listen and be open
and to be comfortable not knowing
what was going to happen next.
After we got married and had our baby boy,
Mike was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
And through months
of hospitalizations and surgeries,
I followed Mike’s lead,
trying to practice being open,
trying to be OK not knowing
what was going to happen next.
It was Mike’s tolerance for ambiguity
that allowed me to survive
those months of uncertainty,
and that helped me explore new ways
to rebuild my life after he died.
About a year and a half
after Mike passed away,
I met my current husband, PJ.
PJ is a criminal prosecutor
who sees the world as potentially good
provided that threats
are properly managed.
He also is someone
who embraces order and predictability
in his daily routine,
in the foods that he eats,
in his selection of wardrobe.
And PJ has a vicious wit,
but he’s also morally very serious
with a strong sense of duty and purpose.
And he values tradition,
loyalty and family,
which is why at the age of 28
he did not hesitate to marry a widow,
adopt her baby boy
and raise him as his son.
It was PJ’s need for certainty and closure
that brought stability to our lives.
I share these two stories of Mike and PJ
not just because they’re personal,
but because they illustrate two things
that I have found in my own research.
First, that our psychological traits
shape how we engage with the world,
and second,
that both of these approaches
make all of our lives possible.
Tragically though, political and economic
incentives of our media environment
seek to exploit these differences
to get us angry,
to get our attention,
to get clicks
and to turn us against one another.
And it works.
It works in part because
these same sets of traits
are related to core
political and cultural beliefs.
For years, political
psychologists have studied
how our psychological traits
shape our political beliefs.
We’ve conducted experiments to understand
how our psychology and our politics shape
how we respond to apolitical stimuli.
And this research has shown
that those people
who are less concerned with threats,
who are tolerant of ambiguity,
these people tend to be
more culturally and socially liberal
on matters like immigration
or crime or sexuality.
And because they’re tolerant of ambiguity,
they also tend to be OK with nuance
and they enjoy thinking
for the sake of thinking,
which helps explain why it is
that there are distinct aesthetic
preferences on the left and the right,
with liberals more likely
than conservatives
to appreciate things like abstract art
or even stories that lack a clear ending.
In my experimental work,
I’ve also found that these
differences help explain
why ironic, political satire
is more likely to be appreciated
and understood by liberals
than conservatives.
On the other hand,
those people who
are monitoring for threats,
who prefer certainty and closure,
those tend to be our political,
cultural, social conservatives.
Because they’re on alert,
they also make decisions
quickly and efficiently,
guided by intuition and emotion.
And we’ve found
that these traits help explain
why conservatives enjoy
political opinion talk programming
that clearly and efficiently
identifies threats and enemies.
What is essential though
is that these propensities
are not absolute –
they’re not fixed.
There are liberals
who are monitoring for threats
just as there are conservatives
who are tolerant of ambiguity.
In fact, PJ’s political beliefs
are not that radically different
from those that Mike held.
The link between psychology
and politics is contingent on context:
who we’re with
and what’s going on around us.
The problem is that right now,
our dominant context,
our political and media context,
actually needs these
differences to be absolute,
to be reinforced
and even to be weaponized.
For reasons related to power and profit,
some in politics and media
want us to believe
that those people who approach
the world differently from us –
the Mikes or the PJs –
themselves are dangerous.
And social media platforms
use algorithms and microtargeting
to deliver divisive messages
in our preferred messaging aesthetic.
Messages that relate to politics,
culture and race.
And we see the devastating effects
of these messages every single day.
Americans who are angry
and fearful of the other side.
Charges of the other side
destroying America.
But stop and think for a moment.
What would happen if those differences
had never been weaponized?
It is liberal inclinations
towards openness and flexibility
that allow us to cope with uncertainty
and that allow us to explore new paths
towards innovation, creativity –
scientific discovery.
Think of things like space travel
or cures for diseases
or art that imagines
and reimagines a better world.
And those conservative inclinations
towards vigilance and security
and tradition.
These are the things that motivate us
to do what must be done
for our own protection and stability.
Think of the safety
that’s offered by our armed forces
or the security of our banking system.
Or think about the stability
that’s offered by such democratic
institutions as jury duty,
or cultural traditions
like fireworks on the Fourth of July.
What if the real threat
posed to society and democracy
is not actually posed by the other side?
What if the real danger is posed
by political and media elites
who try to get us to think
that we’d be better off
without the other side
and who use these divisions
for their own personal,
financial, political benefit?
Mike and PJ engaged
with the world very differently,
but these distinct approaches
continue to enrich my life every day.
Instead of our political and media context
determining that
the other side is the enemy
and lulling us into believing
that that’s true,
what if we choose to create the context?
Real people connecting
with other real people,
appreciating these two approaches
for what they are:
necessary gifts that can help us all
survive and thrive together.
Thank you.