From: Pacific Standard
Why We Shut Ourselves Off From Opposing Viewpoints
Pacific Standard:
Interested in an opportunity to earn easy money? All you have to do is spend a couple of minutes reading eight statements that challenge your point of view on a political issue. Who would turn down that offer?
According to revealing new research, the answer is: most of us.
…
Our desire “to avoid listening to people with opposing ideals” is stronger than we realize, writes a research team led by University of Winnipeg psychologist Jeremy Frimer. It reports this pull is equally strong for liberals and conservatives, is not limited to Americans, and is rooted in deep-seated psychological needs.
It’s long been clear that politically minded people have a tendency to retreat into their respective ideological enclaves — which is all too easy to do today, thanks to cable television and the Internet. In the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Frimer and colleagues Linda Skitka and Matt Motyl explore the origins of this democracy-endangering impulse.
Read the whole story: Pacific Standard
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