The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science — and Reality is a 2012 book about the psychological basis for many Republicans' rejection of mainstream scientific theories, as well as theories of economics and history, by the American journalist Chris Mooney.
It is a psychology book on a group of politicians.
This is like standing in the middle of a psychiatric hospital and discussing a particular group of patients.
“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”
― [a:Kurt Vonnegut|2778055|Kurt Vonnegut|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1357661500p2/2778055.jpg]
Quite an interesting read. As a left-wing climate scientist who is totally amazed at the right wing's ability to disregard and deny basic facts, this makes that whole process make more sense. The normal reaction up to now has been, well, they haven't heard enough facts, once they see enough then they will finally understand and change their minds.
Now with more research on the basic differences in brains of conservatives and liberals, it appears that is completely the wrong approach. Surprisingly, better educated conservatives actually become more resistant to changing with the more facts they are given.
Differences in conservative brains (less curiosity, less openness to new information, greater need for quick closure on nuanced complex issues, resistance to changes, the need for order, greater need for authority etc.) go a long way to explaining the current state of the world and point to fatal flaws in the way …
Quite an interesting read. As a left-wing climate scientist who is totally amazed at the right wing's ability to disregard and deny basic facts, this makes that whole process make more sense. The normal reaction up to now has been, well, they haven't heard enough facts, once they see enough then they will finally understand and change their minds.
Now with more research on the basic differences in brains of conservatives and liberals, it appears that is completely the wrong approach. Surprisingly, better educated conservatives actually become more resistant to changing with the more facts they are given.
Differences in conservative brains (less curiosity, less openness to new information, greater need for quick closure on nuanced complex issues, resistance to changes, the need for order, greater need for authority etc.) go a long way to explaining the current state of the world and point to fatal flaws in the way the left normally responds to conflicts and debates over issues. Recent budget battles in the US pitting Tea Party GOPers determined to die fighting before giving any ground with Democrats who immediately work towards compromises show how foolish that tactic has been.
These brain differences explain nicely how the right is able to maintain absolute discipline with precise talking points while the left offers a diffuse front of varying opinions and internal disputes between each other. The Right is able to stand on a platform of mythical stories which have no basis in reality yet are completely resistant to the Left pointing out how completely devoid of facts they are. These stories stand because the Left is unable to understand how the Right wing brain works and offer new stories which are compelling. Lots of nuanced complex facts just bounce off.
But in order to save the world, we will need to figure out how to get past this. The world needs some pretty drastic changes pretty quickly. As long as the Left has no idea how the other half of the world thinks and feels, nothing is going to change.
This book surprised me. I had expected glorification of the liberal frontal lobe, accompanied by severe mocking of conservatives, who are supposedly shown to be phobic automated response machines by modern cognitive psychology.
But the book wasn't like that. Instead, Mooney gives a neat summary of advances in political psychology and tentatively links it to partisan behavior. He is not particularly critical of the research he describes, but also certainly doesn't overplay the value of any study or body of work.
In fact, The Republican Brain is a rare popular science book that may speculate too little instead of too much. Some thoughts on why the different psychological profiles seem to balance out or how this research can be translated to contemporary politics outside of the US would have made the book a bit more inspiring. And although Mooney gives some attention to party-switchers, it could have been expanded on …
This book surprised me. I had expected glorification of the liberal frontal lobe, accompanied by severe mocking of conservatives, who are supposedly shown to be phobic automated response machines by modern cognitive psychology.
But the book wasn't like that. Instead, Mooney gives a neat summary of advances in political psychology and tentatively links it to partisan behavior. He is not particularly critical of the research he describes, but also certainly doesn't overplay the value of any study or body of work.
In fact, The Republican Brain is a rare popular science book that may speculate too little instead of too much. Some thoughts on why the different psychological profiles seem to balance out or how this research can be translated to contemporary politics outside of the US would have made the book a bit more inspiring. And although Mooney gives some attention to party-switchers, it could have been expanded on a bit more.
Still, it's too easy to judge a book by what it's not. In the end, Mooney just wants to show that conservatives and liberals differ markedly in their respective psychologies. He makes good use of the evidence that's there - without too much exaggeration and, to my knowledge, without leaving out important studies -- to drive this point home. Nothing exciting for those who are familiar with the field, but definitely a worthwhile read for anybody looking for an overview of political psychology.
