The Ideological Brain
The Radical Science of Flexible Thinking
-
-
3.3 • 3 Ratings
-
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
Named a best book of the year by The Guardian and The Telegraph
Why do some people become radicalized?
How do ideologies shape the human brain?
And how can we unchain our minds from toxic dogmas?
In The Ideological Brain, Leor Zmigrod reveals the deep connections between political beliefs and the biology of the brain. Drawing on her cutting-edge research, she exposes the complex interplay between cognition and environment that predisposes some individuals to inflexible ways of thinking. The human brain faces a set of dilemmas every day: how to achieve coherence from fragmented sensory inpsuts and how to attain connection with other people in an increasingly atomized and isolating world. Ideologies offer a shortcut, providing easy answers, scripts to follow, and a sense of shared identity. But ideologies also come at a cost: demanding conformity and suppressing individuality through rigid rules, repetitive rituals, and intolerance. Once ideologies grip our minds, they fundamentally transform the way we think, act, and interact with others, making us less sensitive and adaptable.
Guiding readers through her innovative experiments, Zmigrod uncovers the hidden mechanisms driving our beliefs and behaviors and argues that our politics are not superficial but rather woven into the fabric of our minds. Her results show that ideologues across the political spectrum struggle to change their thought patterns when faced with new information. While some individuals are more susceptible to dogmatic thinking than others, all of us can strive to be more flexible, and Zmigrod ultimately explains how we can keep our minds open in the face of extreme ideologies. Eye-opening, provocative, and unforgettable, The Ideological Brain is a groundbreaking book that challenges us to resist black-and-white thinking and reassess our closest convictions.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Your brain comes to mirror your politics and prejudices in... astonishing ways," according to this bracing debut report. Neuroscientist Zmigrod argues that "mental rigidity" is a key marker of susceptibility to extreme worldviews. She recounts conducting an experiment that asked participants to match cards, but changed the rules for what counted as a match partway through the task, finding that subjects who struggled to adapt to the new rules were less willing to shift political views in light of contrary evidence. Contending that "there are parallels between how individuals form a perceptual judgment and how they make ideological judgments," Zmigrod describes administering a study that compared survey responses with the results of a speed test that asked participants to hit designated computer keys in response to visual cues, discovering that subjects who sacrificed speed for accuracy tended to be more conservative politically. She also notes that conservatives tend to have larger amygdalae (the part of the brain "that governs the processing of emotions, especially negatively tinged emotions such as fear") than liberals. Because it remains unclear whether cognitive quirks drive people to dogmatism or whether dogmatism shapes how people process the world, the full implications of Zmigrod's provocative findings are up in the air. Nonetheless, they raise surprising questions about the nature of radicalism. This is sure to spark discussion.
Customer Reviews
Fluff.
Mostly fluff that reaches to be artful and profound, unsuccessfully.