Politics on the Couch: Recent Episodes
Larchmont Productions
Politics on the Couch looks at the way our minds respond to politics and the way politicians mess with our minds.
In each episode award-winning political columnist Rafael Behr is joined by a distinguished expert drawn from the world of politics, psychology or philosophy.
The show will appeal to any listener interested in taking a deep dive into how psychology drives everyone's political thought and behaviour.
Raf Behr talks to journalist, author and broadcaster David Aaronovitch about his recent visit to the National Conservatives conference, and what it taught him about state of the Tory party.
They discuss:
Was there really a re-alignment in British politics post-Brexit?
What do the Nat Cons have to offer us Brits apart from hardline anti-immigration vibes?
Why do some parts of the commentariat spend so much time talking about 'culture wars' when there are so many other issues to cover?
If, as expected, the next government is Labour and inherits an economic mess, will it be possible for them to make all the necessary hard decisions about taxation and spending, and stay in power?
About David Aaaronvitch
More to follow, but in the meantime the most important bit you need to know about his work is this excellent substack updated regularly: https://davidaaronovitch.substack.com
Politics on the Couch has been chosen by Feedspot as both one of the Top 25 UK Psychology Podcasts and Political Science Podcasts on the web.
https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_psychology_podcasts
https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Rafael Behr talks to Rob Hutton, parliamentary sketch writer at the Critic, about the uneasy relationship between Westminster lobby journalists and MPs.
Often political journalists cultivate close relationships with politicians to find out what's really happening in the corridors of power.
But does a journalist's 'insider status' cloud their judgement when working out how to write about political stories or policy ssues, or whether to cover them at all?
Does it inevitably become a trade-off between, a steady stream of 'exclusives', and a fair and objective approach to reporting?
If so, what does this mean for democracy?
Rob Hutton is an author and freelance journalist. He spent 16 years covering the British government for Bloomberg, taking in five prime ministers, as many elections, and the odd referendum. Before that, he worked for the Mirror and the Financial Times. He now has a regular spot as sketchwriter for The Critic. His career has been a mix of seriousness and satire. While he was a reporter for Bloomberg, unquestionably The Global News Organisation Least Likely To Tell A Joke, he wrote Romps, Tots & Boffins, a satirical book about the words only journalists use. He followed that up with Would They Lie to You?, about the way politicians got around reality without actually uttering untruths (it was a more innocent age). According to Rob, his most recent book, Agent Jack, doesn’t have quite so many laughs, although he says there’s an incident with a jar of marmalade and a blueprint for a Vickers tank. 'Oh, and there’s a naked German in a wardrobe.'
Here's a link to his Podcast - A Pod Too Far
Rafael Behr's first book was released in May, 2023
'Politics, A Survivor’s Guide,' is all about the infuriating toxicity of politics, how it got that way and how to resist the slide into cynicism and pessimism that are so corrosive of democracy. It’s about the challenge of staying engaged without getting enraged; the need to empathise with people whose views we cannot share and how that is different to appeasement of politics we believe to be dangerous.
Available from Waterstones:
https://www.waterstones.com/book/politics-a-survivors-guide/rafael-behr/9781838955045
Or, for those who are interested in signed copies, from City Books in Hove:
https://www.city-books.co.uk
Politics on the Couch has been chosen by Feedspot as both one of the Top 25 UK Psychology Podcasts and Political Science Podcasts on the web.
https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_psychology_podcasts
https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this edition Rafael Behr talks to Professor Ben Ansell about his new book Why Politics Fails: The Five Traps of the Modern World & How to Escape Them
Ben Ansell is Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. He was made Fellow of the British Academy in 2018, among the youngest fellows at that time. His work has been widely covered in the media, including in the World Bank's World Development Report, The New York Times, The Economist, The Times and on BBC Radio 4's 'Start the Week'. He was the Principal Investigator of the multi-million-pound ERC project 'The Politics of Wealth Inequality', is co-editor of the most-cited journal in comparative politics, and has written three award-winning academic books. Why Politics Fail is his latest book and his first for a wider audience.
Link to buy Ben's new book
https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/284663/ben-ansell
Link to Ben's substack
https://benansell.substack.com
Rafael Behr's first book was released Thursday 4 May, 2023
'Politics, A Survivor’s Guide,' is all about the infuriating toxicity of politics, how it got that way and how to resist the slide into cynicism and pessimism that are so corrosive of democracy. It’s about the challenge of staying engaged without getting enraged; the need to empathise with people whose views we cannot share and how that is different to appeasement of politics we believe to be dangerous.
Available from Waterstones:
https://www.waterstones.com/book/politics-a-survivors-guide/rafael-behr/9781838955045
Or, for those who are interested in signed copies, from City Books in Hove:
https://www.city-books.co.uk
Politics on the Couch has been chosen by Feedspot as both one of the Top 25 UK Psychology Podcasts, and Top 25 Political Science Podcasts on the web.
https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_psychology_podcasts
https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode host Rafael Behr talks to Dr Karen Stenner, the political psychologist & behavioral economist best known for long ago predicting the rise of Trump-like figures uner the kinds of conditions we now confront.
Her research on authoritarianism and 'Far Right' politics uses psychological theories and methods (in particular, Randomized Controlled Trials) to explain human behavior.
She also use those same theories and methods (particularly RCTs) to shift human behavior via communications and campaigns (of every kind), including designing and embedding messages that de-activate authoritarianism and diminish expressions of intolerance and racism in a society.
We also discuss the recent Labour victory in the Australian general election and the part that 'independent teals' played.
If you'd like to find out more about Dr Stenner and work please visit her site: https://www.karenstenner.com
And you may find her articles below of particular interest.
For Hope Not Hate on how to help authoritarians live in peace with liberal democracy.
https://hopenothate.org.uk/2020/11/01/authoritarianism
- Her recent piece with Jessica Stern for Foreign Policy on how liberal democracy must treat authoritarianism as a chronic condition to be managed.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/11/capitol-insurrection-trump-authoritarianism-psychology-innate-fear-envy-change-diversity-populism/
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
This week, Rafael Behr and Professor Helen Thompson discuss her new book Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century.
The book, which was released on the day Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, recounts three histories—one about geopolitics, one about the world economy, and one about western democracies.
She explains how a confluence of different crises, building over many years, has created the current mood of global, epoch-defining disorder.
It shows how much of this turbulence originated in problems generated by fossil-fuel energies, and it explains why, as the green transition takes place, the longstanding predicaments energy invariably shapes will remain in place.
In light of her new book and the war raging in Ukraine, in this edition of Politics on the Couch Rafael and Helen discuss a wide-range of ideas and issues:
Topics discussed:
- Was the Russian invasion of Ukraine an inflection point in history and how do we know if we're living through one?
- Do individuals and charismatic personalities shape history or merely express longer-running trends and bigger forces?
- Does Johnson have any ideology? If so, what is it?
- Can the year we're born can shape our optimism about the future?
- Has the pandemic affected the way citizens view making big sacrifices for a greater good?
- How can strong political identities be forged from adversity?
- Do Western liberal democracies have the capacity to drive through the change needed to make the green transition?
- Is China as an authoritarian state at an advantage?
-
What lessons has the Ukrainian war taught us about energy policy and green transition?
-
Helen's new book: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/disorder-hard-times-in-the-21st-century/9780198864981
- Helen's Cambridge University page: https://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/Staff_and_Students/dr-helen-thompson
Politics on the Couch has been chosen by Feedspot as one of the Top 25 UK Psychology Podcasts and Top 25 Political Science Podcasts on the web.
https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_psychology_podcasts
https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts
Human beings routinely make terrible choices but humanity still achieves amazing things.
How does this paradox work?
And is it still working when technology seems to amplify the worst in us.
In this episode, Politics on the Couch host Rafael Behr talks to Professor Steven Pinker about the constant struggle between evidence and emotion for control of the political agenda; whether truth and fact are winning the long war against superstition and falsehood, and why rationality always has the last word.
Professor Steven Pinker is Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and the author of a number of highly acclaimed and prize-winning books about psychology, cognitive science, linguistics and history.
His latest book Rationality: What it is; why it seems scarce; why it matters was published in September.
https://stevenpinker.com/publications/rationality-what-it-why-it-seems-so-scarce-and-why-it-matters
More about Steven Pinker:
https://stevenpinker.com/biocv
Other books by Steven Pinker mentioned in episode
The Better Angels of our Nature
https://stevenpinker.com/publications/better-angels-our-nature
Enlightenment Now https://stevenpinker.com/publications/enlightenment-now-case-reason-science-humanism-and-progress
A couple of references in this episode that might be useful as further reading.
Michael Ignatieff’s book Fire and Ashes, about a failed career in politics
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/27/michael-ignatieff-fire-ashes-review
Jonathan Rauch’s book The Constitution of Knowledge, about the crisis of trust in institutions
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/26/the-constitution-of-knowledge-review-jonathan-rauch-trump
Politics on the Couch has been chosen by Feedspot as one of the Top 25 UK Psychology Podcasts and Top 25 Political Science Podcasts on the web.
https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_psychology_podcasts
https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
In this episode Rafael Behr talks to Cambridge University political psychologist Dr Lee de-Wit about the problem with progressive arguments over patriotism, and Labour's constant struggle to connect with socially conservative voters.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Dr Lee de-Wit's Cambridge University homepage
https://www.psychol.cam.ac.uk/people/lee-de-wit
Arnold Kling's book
https://cdn.cato.org/libertarianismdotorg/books/ThreeLanguagesOfPolitics.pdf
Haidt and Moral Foundations Theory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_foundations_theory
Tariq Modood's site
http://www.tariqmodood.com
YouGov poll on immigration
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2019/09/13/what-policy-do-british-voters-want-on-eu-immigration-is-there-a-hidden-consensus/
Dr Lee de-Wit's book
http://eandtbooks.com/books/whats-your-bias/
Dr Lee de-Wit's recent article in the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/11/politics-left-right-tories-advantage-labour
Politics on the Couch has just been selected by Feedspot as one of the Top 25 UK Psychology Podcasts on the web.
This is the most comprehensive list of Top 25 UK Psychology Podcasts on the internet and we're honored to have been selected!
https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_psychology_podcasts
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
Britain's vast colonial project, amassed over centuries and covering a quarter of the world at its height, is unavoidable in any discussion of race and identity in modern Britain. Or, at least, it should be, but the nation has, until recently, done a remarkable job of avoiding the subject.
In this episode, Rafael Behr talks to Sathnam Sanghera about Empireland, his recent book that delves into that Imperial legacy, how it shapes our nation, our culture and defines so much of our politics to this day.
Sathnam Sanghera has won multiple awards for his journalism in the Financial Times and the Times. His 2009 memoir, The Boy with the Topknot, was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award, as was his 2014 novel, Marriage Material.
Empireland: How Imperialism has Shaped Modern Britain was published earlier this year to much acclaim.
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
Rafael Behr talks to Cognitive Scientist of Political Violence, Nafees Hamid, about what makes extremists tick and how to change their minds.
Nafees discusses the conditions that push people towards extremist ideologies and whether a martyr's mind is wired differently to the rest of us.
Along the way, Rafael and Nafees explore identity, sacred values, devoted actors, and how extremists can be walked back from acts of violence.
Nafees Hamid is a Fellow at ARTIS International (https://artisinternational.org) and an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (https://icct.nl) in The Hague.
His research focuses on the psychology of radicalisation and social fragmentation in Western countries.
His methods include ethnographic interviews, survey studies, social network analysis, and psychology and neuroscience experiments with mostly Western members of extremist organisations, their friends and family, supporters of such networks, and the general communities from where they originate.
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
Rafael Behr talks to Matt d'Ancona about his new book: 'Identity, Ignorance, Innovation: Why the Old Politics is Useless - and what to do about it.'
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Identity-Ignorance-Innovation-by-Matthew-DAncona-author/9781529303995
They discuss why the 'liberal left' needs to adapt to a new politics that is being shaped much more by digital networks and identity politics than the older institutional forces.
Matt joined The Sunday Telegraph in 1996 as deputy comment editor and columnist, before becoming deputy editor. He wrote a weekly political column in The Sunday Telegraph for a decade.
He succeeded Boris Johnson as editor of The Spectator.
In January 2015, d'Ancona joined The Guardian as a weekly columnist.
He left the paper in 2019 to become an editor and partner at https://www.tortoisemedia.com
He also writes columns for the Evening Standard, GQ and The New York Times.
He is chairman of the liberal Conservative think tank, Bright Blue, a trustee of the Science Museum and a Visiting Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London.
Rafael Behr talks to neuroscientist and author Tali Sharot about the optimism hard-wired into our thought processes, how it affects the way we look at the world – and what it means for politics.
The conversation also covers the relationship between emotion and reason, how we should respect some of the more primitive parts of our brains, what messages work best to encourage people to act on climate change, and what connects sourdough and the hunt for a coronavirus vaccine.
Tali Sharot is a professor at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, where she is Director of the Affective Brain Lab, and Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow.
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/research/experimental-psychology/person/dr-tali-sharot/Sheis
the author of The Optimism Bias:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Optimism-Bias-were-wired-bright/dp/1780332637
and The Influential Mind:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Influential-Mind-Reveals-Change-Others/dp/0349140634/
This podcast is hosted by wwww.zencast.fm
Rafael Behr talks to author and comedian David Baddiel about his book “Jews Don't Count” – a closely argued polemic about the failure of progressive-left politics to treat antisemitism with the same moral rigour as is applied to other kinds of racism.
The frank and at times raw conversation deals with the social and cultural dimensions of one of history's oldest prejudices, as well as the individual emotional and psychological components of a secular Jewish identity. They also talk a little bit about football.
David Baddiel's book is published by TLS Books
https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/jews-dont-count-david-baddiel-tls-books-extract/
Rafael Behr explores the causes of resistance to vaccine science and its links with far-right propaganda with Imran Ahmed, founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
The chat ranges from the emotional vulnerabilities that lead people to take comfort from conspiracy theories to the political obligations on social media companies to help defend democracy from malevolent, weaponised lies.
Along the way, Rafael and Imran touch on politics, psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, the scientific method, Hugo Boss's Nazi tailoring and some practical advice for dealing with toxic falsehood online.
The two reports mentioned in the episode are Don't Feed the Trolls:
https://www.counterhate.com/dont-feed-the-trolls
And the Anti-Vaxx Playbook:
https://www.counterhate.com/playbook
Imran also mentions Ashli Babbit who was killed in the Washington DC Capitol riot:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/09/ashli-babbitt-capitol-mob-trump-qanon-conspiracy-theory
And a Guardian report about the Tuskegee Study Imran discusses:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/08/guatemala-victims-us-syphilis-study
Our podcast was recently chosen by Feedspot as one of the best 15 English-speaking political science podcasts in the world.
https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
Host Rafael Behr answers some listeners' questions and looks ahead to the challenges facing the main political parties in 2021 as they try to navigate their way through a pandemic, levelling up, calls for Scottish independence and the reality of Brexit. Plus, reflections on the future for remainers and the prospects for a campaign to re-join the EU. Also features one book recommendation and a very extended metaphor about coral.
Cultural Amnesia by Clive James
https://uk.bookshop.org/books/cultural-amnesia-notes-in-the-margin-of-my-time/9780330481755
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
Host Rafael Behr talks to Dr Carol Tavris about the mental obstacles that stop us from admitting that we may have made a mistake. Dr Tavris is a pre-eminent social psychologist specialising in the field of cognitive dissonance and co-author of “Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me)”, a seminal book on the subject that was recently updated to include a chapter on Donald Trump's support base.
Carol has written articles, op-eds, and book reviews on a wide array of topics in psychological science for the TLS, Wall Street Journal, Skeptic magazine, Los Angeles Times, and many other venues.
This episode was recorded just before Christmas 2020 and touches on some of the reasons why few people have changed their minds about their support for (or opposition to) the idea of Brexit, and why the reality in 2021 is unlikely to trigger mass conversions.
Links to interesting stuff mentioned in this podcast
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/oct/23/sarah-silverman-apologises-after-louis-ck-masturbation-comments
https://lincolnproject.us
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Festinger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_cult
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliot_Aronson
Amazon UK link to Carol's book
Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions and Hurtful Acts (2020 edition - updated and revised)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mistakes-Were-Made-but-Not/dp/1780666950/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1JHS0EFOUNOK3&dchild=1&keywords=mistakes+were+made+but+not+by+me&qid=1609202077&sprefix=mistakes+were+%2Caps%2C285&sr=8-1
Amazon US link
https://www.amazon.com/Mistakes-Were-Made-but-Third/dp/0358329612/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=mistakes+were+made+but+not+by+me+third+edition&qid=1591458464&s=books&sr=1-1
Our podcast was recently chosen by Feedspot as one of the best 15 English-speaking political science podcasts in the world.
https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
Politics on the Couch host Rafael Behr talks to Professors Constantine Sedikides and Tim Wildschut of the University of Southampton, about the way people narrate the stories of their past, what they get from the process and the way political campaigns can exploit those feelings.
Prof. Constantine Sedikides
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/psychology/about/staff/cs2.page
Prof Tim Wildschut
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/psychology/about/staff/timw.page
Nostalgia website
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/nostalgia/
Our podcast was recently chosen by Feedspot as one of the best 15 English-speaking political science podcasts in the world.
https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts
In the aftermath of the US presidential election, Rafael Behr talks to Professor Drew Westen about different forms of charisma, the struggle to communicate liberal arguments to Republican voters and the symptoms of severe personality disorder exhibited by Donald Trump.
Drew Westen is a professor in the Psychology and Psychiatry Department at Emory University, Atlanta Georgia. He is also a political consultant and author of the highly influential book "The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation."
Our podcast was recently chosen by Feedspot as one of the best 15 English-speaking political science podcasts in the world
https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts
In this bonus episode, podcast host Rafael Behr turns to his old friend and New York Times columnist Ben Smith for analysis of the state of US politics a week before the biggest election in living memory, and for reassurance that, maybe, everything is gonna be alright.
Rafael Behr speaks to social anthropologist Emma Crewe about parliament; what makes MPs tick, the psychological mechanisms they need to function in one of the country's weirdest workplaces - and their relationship with journalists.
Professor Crewe, of SOAS, University of London, is the only anthropologist to have been based inside the Palace of Westminster, having spent years embedded in both the Lords and the Commons, enjoying uniquely privileged access to the inner workings of the legislature.
You can read more about her research on parliaments and other topics at her Global Research Network on People and Parliaments website: www.grnpp.org or on her personal site www.emmacrewe.com
Routledge will be publishing her latest book - 'An Anthropology of Parliaments: entanglements in democratic politics' in 2021.
This podcast is hosted by https://wwww.zencast.fm
In this episode Rafael Behr speaks to celebrated Irish author and journalist Fintan O'Toole about their shared fascination with nationalism and the myths of foreign oppression that fired a very English revolution. Also featuring digressions on the Scottish independence movement, Irish attitudes to Brexit and the Italian Job.
Fintan O'Toole is a historian, critic and cultural commentator; author of many books that range across questions of culture, identity, nationhood in Ireland and Britain. He is one of Ireland's most prominent and eminent political writers.
This week Rafael Behr talks to Tim Harford, BBC Radio 4's presenter of More or Less and FT columist, about his new book: How To Make The World Add Up.
Tim Harford writes the Undercover Economist column for the FT and was previously an economics leader writer for the FT.
He is also the author of seven books, including the million-selling, The Undercover Economist and before that, Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy.
He is also a regular presenter for BBC radio.
He was made an OBE in the 2019 new year honours list “for services to improving economic understanding.
Link to buy the book: www.hive.co.uk/Product/Tim-Harford/How-to-Make-the-World-Add-Up--Ten-Rules-for-Thinking-Diff/25138829)
If you have a questions, comments or suggestions for Rafael about the podcast please email potc@larchmontfilms.com
If you enjoy this podcast do please like, share and review it.
Phil (the producer)
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
Host Rafael Behr looks ahead to a new political season that promises to be like none in recent memory and reflects on a lost summer of coronavirus denial, with some digressions on party conferences, Brexit and Cliff Richard.
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
This week Rafael Behr and Helen Lewis discuss social media's corrosive effect on politics and public discourse, and how we can all respond.
Helen Lewis is a staff writer at the Atlantic, was deputy editor at the New Statesman, presents BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour, and is a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's News Quiz. She's written a book about the history of feminism, is ambivalent towards Twitter but likes the Sopranos and embroidery.
Helen's new book - (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/16/difficult-women-history-of-feminism-11-fights-helen-lewis-review)
Helen's newsletter - http://helenlewis.substack.com
Helen's writing in the Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/author/helen-lewis
Helen's lecture on the failure's of political journalism - https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/video/helen-lewis-failures-political-journalism
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
This week, Rafael Behr talks to Bobby Duffy from The Policy Institute at King's College London about trust in the government during the Coronavirus pandemic and how our identities and cognitive biases affect who we trust in politics.
Topics discussed in order
1-4
Fall-out from Dominic Cummings; Public health messaging during lock-down; Stats coronavirus tests it says it’s been carrying out; Bobby Duffy conversation starts
5-10
King's College new report; support for the government coming out of the lock-down; How identities influence how we view the government's response to the pandemic; Growth of tribal identities; Conflict extension theory; Potential for a culture war like the US?
10.30
Connections between leave/remain tribes and trust in how govt. is dealing with Coronavirus; National pride; Confirmation bias How do political identity and self-preservation interact?
14
How good are we at assessing risk? Emotional innumeracy
17.40
Good that we overestimate risk in such scenarios? System 1 v System 2 thinking Do politicians exploit our ‘faulty thinking’?
21
Do we understand reality more or less than the 1940s?
22
Deliberative democracy; What is it? Is it underused?
24
Eire using DD before their 2018 abortion referendum; Is context important?
29
Has trust in politicians declined recently? Is it rational not to trust politicians?
31
Do we suffer from rosy retrospection? Does identity come before people’s politics?
36
Progressives, facts and trust; Moral outlook and who we trust How Trump communicates trust via a distorted view of reality.
40
How will we look back at our unity at the start of the lock-down? room for optimism? optimism/uncertainty about how we come out of Coronavirus; generational conflict?
48
In conclusion
49
End
- https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/declining-confidence-in-governments-covid-response
- Perils of Perception
In this bonus edition Rafael Behr takes a break from his lock-down holiday to ask - what is 'political cut-through' and why Dominic Cummings appears to have cut so deep into the national conversation? In the midst of a pandemic, has a political mover renowned for capturing the mood of nation misjudged it this time? NB This episode was recorded on the morning of 26 May before any post-conference opinion polls.
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
This week Rafael Behr talks to The Lord John Alderdice about his incredible life as a politician, psychiatrist and psychotherapist.
They discuss how his formative years living in Northern Ireland influenced his decision to train as a psychiatrist and then psychotherapist; how this then informed his whole approach to politics and his political philosophy; and how it also helped him as a key negotiator in the Good Friday Agreement talks. He also gives some advice to any intolerant liberal progressives out there!
If you're interested in reading more about him and his work - this link will prove helpful.
https://lordalderdice.com/publications
This week our host Rafael Behr is in conversation with Dr Leor Zmigrod about how cognitive science can help us understand how political identities are formed, and how people's ideological affiliations might affect how they respond to a national crisis.
If you want to delve further into the topic
Reader-friendly essays
Zmigrod, L. (2019). The partisan brain: cognitive study suggests people on the left and right are more similar than they think.
https://theconversation.com/the-partisan-brain-cognitive-study-suggests-people-on-the-left-and-right-are-more-similar-than-they-think-123578
Zmigrod, L. (2018). Brexit: how cognitive psychology helps us make sense of the vote.
https://theconversation.com/brexit-how-cognitive-psychology-helps-us-make-sense-of-the-vote-95031
Relevant academic papers
Zmigrod, L. (2020). The Role of Cognitive Rigidity in Political Ideologies: Theory, Evidence, and Future Directions. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 34, 34-39.
See paper here.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2019.10.016
Zmigrod, L., Ebert, T., Götz, F. M., & Rentfrow, J. (2020). The Psychological and Socio-political Consequences of Infectious Diseases. Retrieved from psyarxiv.com/84qcm
Tybur, J. M., Inbar, Y., Aarøe, L., Barclay, P., Barlow, F. K., De Barra, M., ... & Consedine, N. S. (2016). Parasite stress and pathogen avoidance relate to distinct dimensions of political ideology across 30 nations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(44), 12408-12413 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1607398113
Murray, D. R., Schaller, M., & Suedfeld, P. (2013). Pathogens and politics: Further evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism. PloS One, 8(5). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062275
Kim, H. S., Sherman, D. K., & Updegraff, J. A. (2016). Fear of Ebola: The influence of collectivism on xenophobic threat responses. Psychological Science, 27(7), 935-944. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616642596