Episode 105: Patchwork Politics

Two Psychologists Four Beers

In heated political debates, people are often accused of being hypocrites, lacking consistent foundational values. Today, Yoel and Alexa discuss a recent paper by David Pinsof, David Sears, and Martie Haselton, that challenges the commonsense notion that political belief systems stem from our core values. Instead, the authors propose that people form alliances with others, and develop political beliefs that serve to maintain those alliances. The cohosts discuss how these alliances might form, the various biases used to defend them, and whether values are truly absent from the process. They also tackle the deeper question of whether the alliance model means that neither side is right or wrong.

Links:

• Two Psychologists Four Beers on Untappd
• PsyArXiv Preprints | Strange Bedfellows: The Alliance Theory of Political Belief Systems
• R. Ring - "Hug" | Music Video - YouTube