05: Psychology of Politics: Why Liberals and Conservatives Disagree

Most people assume political conflict is about values, policy, or who is morally right. Dr. Lisle says it is actually about one ancient question your Stone Age brain has been asking for 100,000 years: share or not share. Every other issue is a historical accident sitting on top of that core divide.

In this episode, Dr. Doug Lisle walks through the evolutionary psychology of politics, drawing on the work of Tooby and Cosmides at UC Santa Barbara. He explains why "stingy" and "lazy" were the two biggest insults in Stone Age villages and still are today, why your sense of how variable the economic world is determines where you land politically, and why arguing about politics with friends and family is almost always a waste of time. Nathan and Dr. Lisle also cover the octopus strategy for defusing political conflict without compromising your own views.

Key question covered: Why do liberals and conservatives see the world so differently, and is there anything you can do to change someone's political mind?

Beat Your Genes is co-hosted by evolutionary psychologist Dr. Doug Lisle, PhD and Dr. Nathan Gershfeld, DC.

New episodes every other week.

YouTube: youtube.com/@BeatYourGenes

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Intro and outro: City of Happy Ones. Ferenc Hegedus. Licensed for use. Copyright Beat Your Genes Podcast