DSPO 25A86 - Politics and the mind

What are the roots of the deep animosity between liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans in the United States? To what extent are we predisposed to racism and xenophobia and what can we do to remedy it? Why are our minds so prone to conspiratorial thinking and the attribution of hostile intentions? Why are political activists often motivated to restrict free speech? Why do we often not practice the principles we preach (fly less, eat less meat)?

Those fundamental questions lie at the core of political psychology, a fast-growing field at the crossroads of cognitive science and the social sciences. It studies how cognitive and social factors shape our beliefs, speech, and behaviors with respect to topics considered as "political" or "societal": ideological and affective polarization; activist mobilizations and moral progress; political extremism and conspiratorial thinking; the effects of social media on public opinion; popular fears about technologies such as GMOs, vaccines or nuclear power; the causes of interpersonal racism and structural inequality; how people represent international relations; how citizens form beliefs about economic and organizational processes, etc.

In order to better explain these phenomena, political psychology strives to integrate a diversity of factors. These range from universal cognitive biases of the human mind (confirmation bias, thinking in terms of "them" vs. "us") to personality differences (Big 5, status-seeking, social dominance), including emotions and moral intuitions (“moral foundations”), group loyalties, rational incentives, as well as the specific news diets and network structures in which individuals are embedded (left vs. right wing media, nationalistic propaganda, echo chambers, national narratives).

The course will emphasize that human thought and communication do not only pursue an objective of accuracy or truth-seeking, but also social goals of mobilizing others, fitting in groups, and enhancing our personal reputations. The course will also aim to explain political beliefs and behaviors not only from the "proximate" level of analysis (psychological mechanisms and social influences, standard in social sciences) but also from the "ultimate" level of analysis (borrowed from biology: the selection pressures that shaped our minds during human evolution). Indeed, for 99% of our evolution as a species, our ancestors lived by hunting and gathering within small groups, fairly egalitarian but rival to one another, whose protection individuals had to secure. In this ancient hunter-gathering lifestyle, there was no state to enforce punishment, no mass media, no international markets, no international law, and no one possessed advanced scientific expertise. In many respects, it is to deal with the problems inherent to this past social environment that many of our basic cognitive tendencies evolved, not for the complexities of mass modern societies. Hence a certain number of "mismatches" between our spontaneous behaviors and intuitions and the new demands of mass contemporary politics (e.g., preserving the environment; favoring due process over tribal loyalties, etc.).

The course will address questions such as these:

In what way do our high levels of cooperation (including with strangers we will never meet again) make us unique beings in the animal kingdom, and how did we get there?

Why are humans so prone to tribalism, "us" versus "them" thinking, stereotypes, and political extremism (radicalization, genocides)?

Do people really believe the 'fake news' they sometimes share on social networks? Why share misinformation, then?

Why do political activists often seek to restrict the freedom of expression of their rivals?

What are the mechanisms fostering the deep animosity that oppose liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans in the United States?

To what extent are we predisposed to racism and xenophobia and what can we do to remedy it?

Why are our minds so prone to conspiratorial thinking and the attribution of hostile intentions?

Why are political activists often hypocritical? Why do we often not practice the principles we preach (fly less, eat less meat)?

Why are there quasi-religious aspects in political life, such as "sacred values" deemed inviolable, national myths, and collective rituals (e.g., military parades)?

Why do naive economic intuitions have such recurring contents, despite the errors they often contain?

Course objectives:

Being able to explain basic elements of cognitive science applied to the study of political beliefs and behaviors such as, e.g., the notion that the function of the mind is to make inferences, is calibrated to deal with social interactions, responds to cultural influences and incentives, and is structured in specialized cognitive systems and motivations.

Being able to explain basic elements of modern evolutionary theory including (but not restricted to) the principles of natural selection, basic features of human evolution, and how our evolved cognitive tendencies constrain the forms taken by society and politics.

Being able to think about political phenomena in ways that combine insights and mechanisms from sociology, political science, cognitive science, and evolutionary social science.

Be able to compare and evaluate the contributions of cognitive and evolutionary approaches to social and political behaviors vs. traditional socio-constructivist social science theories.

Be able to formulate cognitive, sociological and evolutionary hypotheses in clear language (ideally, close to academic English) in speaking and in written assignments.

Be able to evaluate empirical results (observational and experimental), discuss their robustness and generalizability, and discuss them in relation to existing theory and empirical evidence.

I will provide you with all texts by email or via the Moodle of Sciences Po (https://moodle.sciences-po.fr/)

Some basic knowledge of social science and psychology concepts and methods is useful but not required.

Group presentation (exposé)

In class, oral exam on the whole course materials (about 10 minutes per student)