Name: The psychological traits that shape your political beliefs | Dannagal G. Young
Uploaded: 2020-10-23T23:40:15.000Z
Duration: 9 min 5 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

and what this means for society and for democracy ...

Some people see the world as safe and good,

and this allows them to be OK with uncertainty

Others are acutely aware of threats in their environment,

so they prioritize order and predictability

I study how these two approaches shape how we think and feel

and partisan media use these very differences

and how the economics of our media system exploit these same divides.

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

Take for example two men who have been so influential in my own life.

He was an artist who saw the world as safe and good.

He welcomed ambiguity and play in his life.

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,

And through months of hospitalizations and surgeries,

trying to be OK not knowing what was going to happen next.

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,

provided that threats are properly managed.

He also is someone who embraces order and predictability

And he values tradition, loyalty and family,

It was PJ's need for certainty and closure

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,

that both of these approaches make all of our lives possible.

Tragically though, political and economic incentives of our media environment

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.

that those people who are less concerned with threats,

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,

and they enjoy thinking for the sake of thinking,

that there are distinct aesthetic preferences on the left and the right,

with liberals more likely than conservatives

or even stories that lack a clear ending.

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.

those people who are monitoring for threats,

those tend to be our political, cultural, social conservatives.

they also make decisions quickly and efficiently,

And we've found that these traits help explain

Subtitles ListPlay Video

The psychological traits that shape your political beliefs | Dannagal G. Young

context

prioritize

appreciate

thrive