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“An eye-opening analysis of why our politics have become so polarized….Keith Payne illuminates one of the biggest problems of our time and lights the way toward some promising solutions.”
—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again
"Good Reasonable People challenges each of us to drop the weapon of demonization and replace it with something more powerful: a framework for understanding—and for being understood by—people who see the world differently from us."
—Margot Lee Shetterly, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Figures
A leading social scientist explains the psychology of our current social divide and how understanding it can help reduce the conflicts it causes
There has been much written about the impact of polarization on elections, political parties, and policy outcomes. But Keith Payne’s goal is more personal: to focus on what our divisions mean for us as individuals, as families, and as communities. This book is about how ordinary people think about politics, why talking about it is so hard, and how we can begin to mend the personal bonds that are fraying for so many of us.
Drawing upon his own research and his experience growing up in a working class, conservative Christian family in small town Kentucky, Payne argues that there is a near-universal human tendency to believe that people who are different from us are irrational or foolish. The fundamental source of our division is our need to flexibly rationalize ideas in order to see ourselves as good people.
Understanding the psychology behind our political divide provides clues about how we can reduce the damage it is causing. It won’t allow us to undo our polarization overnight, but it can give us the tools to stop going around in circles in frustrating arguments. It can help us make better choices about how we engage in political debates, how policy makers and social media companies deal with misinformation, and how we deal with each other on social media. It can help us separate, if we choose to, our political principles from our personal relationships so that we can nurture both.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 1, 2024 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780593491959
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780593491959
- File size: 3316 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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September 1, 2024
An examination of the psychology of our increasing political division. "This book is not about politicians or political strategists or party organizations. It is about ordinary people making sense of their world in the best way they know how to," social psychologist Payne asserts in the opening pages. He stays true to this promise, beginning first with his own upbringing. Raised in a house off the highway in Kentucky by working-class, Christian parents, his childhood was characterized by conservative leanings. When Payne left for college, his dad told him he'd better not return a "long-haired hippie." But after only three months away, Payne began to stray from his family's beliefs, returning with hoop earrings and untrimmed hair--things his father chose not to mention. "So many families like mine have reached a brittle peace in recent years," he writes, "holding their breath, limiting their conversations to the weather and sports and children"--but why? How did our differences in political beliefs gain so much animosity in recent years? Payne uses psychology to demonstrate that people aren't fundamentally different from one another. Belying the stereotype that liberals are inherently more open-minded and conservatives more dogmatic, beliefs are a product of circumstance. Given the option, we all defend our own viewpoints before considering others. Cognitive research shows that "all persuasion is self persuasion," as we confirm what we already suspected. And those viewpoints are largely from chance elements of our upbringing and other life encounters. Interesting, compassionate, and ultimately a bridge between those too often depicted as opposites, this book provides background for why we believe what we do and what makes us stick to it. Remarkably accessible despite its academic nature and rigorous research, it opens dialogue about how we can consider both sides as people, not concepts. Compelling, eye-opening research that humanizes political discord and encourages understanding and compassion.COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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