1 00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:09,240 Speaker 1: What does political polarization have to do with the brain. 2 00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: How does an understanding of the medial prefrontal cortex tell 3 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:20,240 Speaker 1: us about what propaganda posters have in common across nation 4 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:22,919 Speaker 1: and time. What does any of this have to do 5 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:27,640 Speaker 1: with the Civil War or hippies versus soldiers, or border 6 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:33,280 Speaker 1: ruffians versus free staters or barbarians, or hanging chads or 7 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:37,760 Speaker 1: pearl harbor, or the shadows side of oxytocin, And why 8 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:43,080 Speaker 1: education can serve as an immune response to mind viruses. 9 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:49,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to Inner Cosmos with me David Eagleman. I'm a 10 00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:53,239 Speaker 1: neuroscientist and author at Stanford and in these episodes we 11 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:57,560 Speaker 1: sail deeply into our three pound universe to understand why 12 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:16,640 Speaker 1: and how our lives look the way they do. Today's 13 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:19,200 Speaker 1: episode is one of a couple I'm making on the 14 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:24,600 Speaker 1: topic of neuropolitics. We are in a polarized era, and 15 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:28,160 Speaker 1: when I look around, I see a primate brain doing 16 00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:31,640 Speaker 1: lots of things that primate brains do. So today I'm 17 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:35,160 Speaker 1: going to talk about polarization, and in the next episode, 18 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:37,320 Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about all the good news, which 19 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:41,440 Speaker 1: is the flexibility of the brain and what hopes we 20 00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:46,160 Speaker 1: might have to get ourselves out of polarization. I'm also 21 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:49,440 Speaker 1: going to do another episode about all the other aspects 22 00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:52,960 Speaker 1: of the bigger picture that I'm calling neuropolitics, which is 23 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:56,240 Speaker 1: the way that the circuitry of our brains leads us 24 00:01:56,280 --> 00:01:59,520 Speaker 1: to the kind of political viewpoints we have, and why 25 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:03,880 Speaker 1: we often have a difficult time understanding one another and 26 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:09,600 Speaker 1: why societies fracture along particular lines. Okay, so when I 27 00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:13,920 Speaker 1: think about America, the polarization is high, and this feeling 28 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:18,000 Speaker 1: we all have is of course easily quantified. As one example, 29 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:21,160 Speaker 1: you can look at the numbers about how many times 30 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:25,760 Speaker 1: you have congressmen voting across the aisle. When a society 31 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:28,680 Speaker 1: is very polarized, like it is now, people hold on 32 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:32,560 Speaker 1: tight to their team. I'm very interested in viewing this 33 00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:36,080 Speaker 1: all from the perspective of the brain, but first I 34 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:39,320 Speaker 1: need to do some table setting. A lot of people 35 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:43,440 Speaker 1: assert that our polarization has everything to do with social media. 36 00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:47,160 Speaker 1: I'm interested in the roles that social media plays, but 37 00:02:47,240 --> 00:02:49,640 Speaker 1: I do need to say that I don't think it 38 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:55,520 Speaker 1: serves by itself as much of an explanation for our polarization. Why, 39 00:02:56,200 --> 00:03:00,880 Speaker 1: because we've been exactly this polarized many many times before, 40 00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:05,520 Speaker 1: all before the Internet was even a twinkle in anybody's eyes. So, 41 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:10,840 Speaker 1: for example, America in the late nineteen sixties was very polarized. 42 00:03:10,919 --> 00:03:14,280 Speaker 1: This was easily seen on the streets, in living rooms, 43 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:18,760 Speaker 1: on television screens. The Vietnam War split the nation. You 44 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:22,839 Speaker 1: had young people marching against it, while others saw opposition 45 00:03:22,919 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: as unpatriotic and dangerous. The Civil rights movement was reshaping 46 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:30,680 Speaker 1: laws and culture, and that was going too fast for 47 00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 1: some and too slow for others. Generational divides ran deep. 48 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:37,960 Speaker 1: Parents who had lived through World War Two and fought 49 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:42,960 Speaker 1: in it struggled to understand their children's embrace of counterculture 50 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 1: and long hair and psychedelic music and radical politics. The 51 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:51,600 Speaker 1: assassinations of Martin Luther King and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, 52 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:55,800 Speaker 1: the urban riots, what happened Kent State. All of these 53 00:03:55,840 --> 00:04:00,320 Speaker 1: moments reinforced the sense that Americans were not living in 54 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 1: one shared country, but in different realities. Trust in government 55 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,760 Speaker 1: plummeted with Watergate in the nineteen seventies, and that further 56 00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:12,480 Speaker 1: hardened the feeling that institutions could no longer be trusted. 57 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:16,920 Speaker 1: It was a time when the nation's social fabrics seemed 58 00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:21,160 Speaker 1: to be tearing and when, much like today, people questioned 59 00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:24,400 Speaker 1: whether their neighbors were even living in the same world 60 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:28,880 Speaker 1: that they were. And of course that was just one 61 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:33,239 Speaker 1: of many polarized eras in this country. The most obvious 62 00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:35,599 Speaker 1: one began in the eighteen forties and led to the 63 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:40,839 Speaker 1: Civil War. The divide over slavery and states rights sharpened 64 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:45,560 Speaker 1: decade by decade, inflamed by the Missouri Compromised, the Kansas 65 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:49,240 Speaker 1: Nebraska Act, the dread Scott decision. You can see the 66 00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:54,320 Speaker 1: way that newspapers and churches and politicians increasingly spoke in 67 00:04:54,520 --> 00:04:59,240 Speaker 1: absolutist terms, and by the way violence erupted well before 68 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:02,200 Speaker 1: the war did. From eighteen fifty four to fifty nine 69 00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:07,760 Speaker 1: in the Kansas territory, you had pro slavery border Ruffians 70 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:11,280 Speaker 1: and the anti slavery free Staters, and they would make 71 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:16,360 Speaker 1: raids back and forth, committing assaults and murders, each retaliating 72 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:19,360 Speaker 1: for the last. There were at least fifty six political 73 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:23,120 Speaker 1: killings during that time, and by the next year, eighteen sixty, 74 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:28,040 Speaker 1: the election of Abraham Lincoln prompted Southern states to secede 75 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:32,360 Speaker 1: and Civil War followed. Okay, so that was a really 76 00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:37,360 Speaker 1: grim outcome with seven hundred thousand people killed. But there 77 00:05:37,440 --> 00:05:41,320 Speaker 1: have been many, many other periods of polarization that somehow 78 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:45,279 Speaker 1: had their day, and then the temperature went down without 79 00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:47,760 Speaker 1: war for different reasons, and we're going to dive into 80 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:51,279 Speaker 1: that next week. For example, in the eighteen seventies, a 81 00:05:51,400 --> 00:05:58,039 Speaker 1: decade after the Civil War, polarization grew again around rapid industrialization. 82 00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:02,000 Speaker 1: You had labor strikes and violent clashes like the Haymarket 83 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:06,320 Speaker 1: riot and the Pullman strike. You had class resentment between 84 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:10,240 Speaker 1: robber barons and workers. And what you can see then 85 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:15,760 Speaker 1: as now is that newspapers and politicians portrayed opponents as 86 00:06:15,920 --> 00:06:20,000 Speaker 1: existential threats to the American way of life. Then in 87 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:23,479 Speaker 1: the nineteen tens and twenties, polarization happened again. World War 88 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:28,320 Speaker 1: I and its aftermath split Americans over issues of free 89 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:32,240 Speaker 1: speech and loyalty and communism. The first Red Scare was 90 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:36,920 Speaker 1: concerned about anarchists and labor organizers who were depicted as 91 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:41,279 Speaker 1: dangerous reds. There were mass arrests and deportations, and this 92 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:46,160 Speaker 1: deepened divides, and simultaneously there was a surgeon racial violence. 93 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:50,040 Speaker 1: The summer of nineteen nineteen saw dozens of race riots 94 00:06:50,279 --> 00:06:53,520 Speaker 1: and the rise of the Second Ku Klux Klan, which 95 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:58,720 Speaker 1: polarized communities along racial and religious and immigrant lines. Then 96 00:06:58,839 --> 00:07:01,320 Speaker 1: by the Late Night Seen twenties and nineteen thirties, you 97 00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:05,920 Speaker 1: had the Great Depression, the economic collapse that sparked really 98 00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:10,920 Speaker 1: fierce battles over the role of government. FDR's New Deal 99 00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:14,160 Speaker 1: was hailed as salvation by some and it was condemned 100 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:18,200 Speaker 1: as socialism by others. Far left and far right groups 101 00:07:18,400 --> 00:07:21,080 Speaker 1: clashed bitterly. And it was also the case that the 102 00:07:21,080 --> 00:07:25,120 Speaker 1: country was polarized over whether America should intervene in Europe 103 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:29,320 Speaker 1: as fascism rose, until the attack on Pearl Harbor, which 104 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:35,000 Speaker 1: temporarily united public opinion. Okay, then I already mentioned the 105 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:38,480 Speaker 1: polarization of the civil rights movement Vietnam era. So let's 106 00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:42,680 Speaker 1: jump to the culture wars of the nineteen eighties and nineties. 107 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:46,400 Speaker 1: Some of you might even recall the Reagan era, where 108 00:07:46,440 --> 00:07:49,720 Speaker 1: the country saw sharp divides over taxation and welfare, and 109 00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:53,920 Speaker 1: abortion and feminism and gay rights. These were the so 110 00:07:54,000 --> 00:08:00,160 Speaker 1: called culture wars, which pitted conservatives and evangelicals against progressives 111 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:04,040 Speaker 1: in battles over school curricula and art and family values. 112 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:07,800 Speaker 1: And again you could measure this with polarization in Congress 113 00:08:07,880 --> 00:08:10,840 Speaker 1: steadily growing. Finally, some of you may even remember the 114 00:08:10,920 --> 00:08:15,280 Speaker 1: contested two thousand election of Bush versus Gore. Again, this 115 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:18,200 Speaker 1: was still pre social media, and the whole race came 116 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:21,800 Speaker 1: down to just the state of Florida, where Bush seemed 117 00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:25,160 Speaker 1: to lead by a few hundred votes out of six 118 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:29,119 Speaker 1: million cast there, and officials tried to figure out voter 119 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:34,840 Speaker 1: intent involving hanging chads, which were in completely punched paper ballots, 120 00:08:34,880 --> 00:08:39,960 Speaker 1: and pregnant chads, which were paper ballots that were dimpled. Anyway, 121 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:41,960 Speaker 1: this spun all the way up to the Supreme Court, 122 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:45,480 Speaker 1: who finally ruled the electoral vote in favor of Bush, 123 00:08:45,520 --> 00:08:48,440 Speaker 1: even though Gore had received five hundred thousand more popular 124 00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:51,679 Speaker 1: votes nationwide. Now, not all my listeners were alive or 125 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:54,240 Speaker 1: watching the news at that time, but boy, that was 126 00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:57,960 Speaker 1: a really highly polarized time as well. Then you had 127 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:00,800 Speaker 1: nine to eleven, which brought the nation together. But then 128 00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:04,600 Speaker 1: over some years the Iraq War started to sharpen those 129 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:08,360 Speaker 1: divides again. Now you might be tempted to say, well, 130 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:11,840 Speaker 1: it's worse than ever now because of social media filter bubbles, 131 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:14,680 Speaker 1: but I just want to remind us all that echo 132 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:18,960 Speaker 1: chambers are the oldest story of humankind. We are more 133 00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:22,280 Speaker 1: comfortable with people who agree with us and see the 134 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:26,160 Speaker 1: world from our angle now. I often hear people say 135 00:09:26,200 --> 00:09:30,080 Speaker 1: things like, yes, but we only had a few news 136 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:33,320 Speaker 1: sources back in the day, so everyone was pinned to 137 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:37,880 Speaker 1: the same truth. Walter Kronkite or whoever. This is a 138 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:42,120 Speaker 1: seductive idea, but it's not true. People got some of 139 00:09:42,160 --> 00:09:46,840 Speaker 1: their info from Kronkite, but also from the newsletters they 140 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:50,840 Speaker 1: subscribe to in their physical mailbox, and also from all 141 00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:54,920 Speaker 1: their friends and neighbors and co workers. And when people 142 00:09:54,920 --> 00:09:58,560 Speaker 1: would have dinners together or chat in the breakroom or 143 00:09:58,640 --> 00:10:01,600 Speaker 1: drink beers in their backyard with their friends, that's when 144 00:10:01,640 --> 00:10:05,320 Speaker 1: they would really come to consensus agreement about what was 145 00:10:05,400 --> 00:10:08,560 Speaker 1: happening in the world. Just to jump back to the 146 00:10:08,640 --> 00:10:12,120 Speaker 1: Vietnam era, do you think the hippies and the returning 147 00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:17,720 Speaker 1: soldiers were sitting down and watching Walter Cronkite and saying, ah, okay, 148 00:10:17,760 --> 00:10:20,600 Speaker 1: I see the truth. There's no problem. We all agree now. 149 00:10:21,720 --> 00:10:27,319 Speaker 1: So any reading of history shows that polarization is depressingly 150 00:10:27,720 --> 00:10:32,319 Speaker 1: a recurring pattern. Each cycle takes a different shape, whether 151 00:10:32,360 --> 00:10:36,400 Speaker 1: that's slavery or labor or immigration, or race or culture 152 00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:39,960 Speaker 1: or war. But the common thread is the part I 153 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:43,000 Speaker 1: want to zoom in on. When people begin to see 154 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:46,880 Speaker 1: each other not as neighbors with families and mortgages and 155 00:10:46,960 --> 00:10:51,320 Speaker 1: lives and desires for a better life, but as existential threats. 156 00:10:52,040 --> 00:10:56,040 Speaker 1: When that happens, the brain circuitry involved in empathy, in 157 00:10:56,200 --> 00:11:00,680 Speaker 1: understanding another person's hopes and dreams, the activity in those 158 00:11:00,720 --> 00:11:05,120 Speaker 1: circuits dials down, and the social fabric begins to frame. 159 00:11:05,840 --> 00:11:07,480 Speaker 1: By the way, I just want to flag a point 160 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:09,600 Speaker 1: that I'm going to explore next week, which is that 161 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:14,199 Speaker 1: most historians interested in this topic linger on how societies 162 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:18,760 Speaker 1: fall into polarization, but my main interest nowadays is how 163 00:11:18,760 --> 00:11:21,720 Speaker 1: they crawl back out. So next week I'm going to 164 00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:25,080 Speaker 1: examine the factors that seem to pull societies back from 165 00:11:25,120 --> 00:11:28,800 Speaker 1: the brink, because with all those eras that I just named, 166 00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:33,000 Speaker 1: we went to actual war only once, and with all 167 00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:36,320 Speaker 1: the other periods, we managed to pull ourselves back onto 168 00:11:36,440 --> 00:11:40,080 Speaker 1: a straight road. Sometimes this is because of external factors 169 00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:43,480 Speaker 1: and sometimes because of internal work, And this is all 170 00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:46,840 Speaker 1: what we're going to address next week. Okay, So now 171 00:11:46,880 --> 00:11:50,199 Speaker 1: I want to return to the particular issue for today, 172 00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:54,560 Speaker 1: which is how our brains operate with in and out 173 00:11:54,559 --> 00:11:57,600 Speaker 1: groups and what the brain is capable of when it's 174 00:11:57,679 --> 00:12:01,400 Speaker 1: pushed in the wrong direction. So let's start in nineteen 175 00:12:01,480 --> 00:12:06,240 Speaker 1: ninety four in Rwanda. The radio was on in homes 176 00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:09,839 Speaker 1: and shops and bars, and the message that pours out 177 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:15,520 Speaker 1: every day is relentless. The Tutsis are cockroaches. They must 178 00:12:15,559 --> 00:12:19,840 Speaker 1: be crushed. This was literally the language in this framework. 179 00:12:20,160 --> 00:12:24,640 Speaker 1: The Tutsi were not citizens or neighbors or people with 180 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:28,560 Speaker 1: families and histories and memories, but they were cockroaches. The 181 00:12:28,640 --> 00:12:31,920 Speaker 1: more often this message was repeated, the more it carved 182 00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:37,320 Speaker 1: itself into people's brains, and eventually the machetes got unsheathed, 183 00:12:37,480 --> 00:12:41,400 Speaker 1: neighbors turned on neighbors. In one hundred days, half a 184 00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:45,199 Speaker 1: million people were killed. And the part that is frankly 185 00:12:45,280 --> 00:12:47,920 Speaker 1: terrifying is that when you think about genocide, you might 186 00:12:47,960 --> 00:12:51,559 Speaker 1: think this gets driven by soldiers or politicians, but that's 187 00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:54,160 Speaker 1: not what was going on here. The engine of what 188 00:12:54,240 --> 00:12:59,480 Speaker 1: happened in Rwanda was regular people who to neighbors who 189 00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:02,520 Speaker 1: had lived side by side with the Tutsi for generations. 190 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:08,120 Speaker 1: That is the power of dehumanization. Once someone is no 191 00:13:08,240 --> 00:13:16,040 Speaker 1: longer perceived as human, the neural breaks come off. Now, 192 00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:18,960 Speaker 1: it would be comforting if we could view Rwanda as 193 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:22,920 Speaker 1: a tragic anomaly, but it's not. History gives us no 194 00:13:23,040 --> 00:13:27,679 Speaker 1: shortage of examples of this very same principle. In Nazi Germany, 195 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:32,160 Speaker 1: the Jewish community was depicted in newspapers like their Sturmer, 196 00:13:32,600 --> 00:13:37,319 Speaker 1: as rodents swarming through sewers. They were painted as vermin 197 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:42,360 Speaker 1: to be exterminated. And this is precisely the cognitive space 198 00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:45,439 Speaker 1: that you need to get into if you actually want 199 00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:49,640 Speaker 1: to murder your former friends and neighbors. And by the way, 200 00:13:49,679 --> 00:13:52,520 Speaker 1: it's not just the Hutu and the Nazis, but everyone 201 00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:56,760 Speaker 1: does it. So during World War Two, American propaganda posters 202 00:13:57,160 --> 00:14:01,840 Speaker 1: portrayed the Japanese with distorted faces and thick glasses and 203 00:14:01,880 --> 00:14:06,720 Speaker 1: clawed fingers crouched like apes. The caption was this is 204 00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:10,040 Speaker 1: the enemy. And this is the same across history. If 205 00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:13,280 Speaker 1: we step back into the world of ancient Rome, you'll 206 00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:17,240 Speaker 1: see that outsiders were called barbarians. The word comes from 207 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:21,200 Speaker 1: the Greek barbaros, which was a mocking sound meant to 208 00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:26,280 Speaker 1: imitate the noise of foreign languages. Bar barbar Originally, it 209 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:29,640 Speaker 1: didn't have a negative connotation. But pretty quickly the terms 210 00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:35,440 Speaker 1: meaning shifted from outsider to a pejorative for being savage 211 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:39,880 Speaker 1: or uncivilized. And this was because to Roman ears, outsiders 212 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:45,640 Speaker 1: had meaningless babbel and increasingly reviewed like animals. The Romans 213 00:14:45,640 --> 00:14:51,400 Speaker 1: often described enemies as wild or beasts. Julius Caesar characterized 214 00:14:51,440 --> 00:14:55,800 Speaker 1: the Galls and Germans as quote, living like animals. Tacitus 215 00:14:55,920 --> 00:14:59,880 Speaker 1: described the Britons as quote savages who live like beasts 216 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:05,240 Speaker 1: in the forests. So across continents and centuries, the pattern 217 00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:09,480 Speaker 1: is exactly the same. When societies prepare for conflict, they 218 00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:13,360 Speaker 1: sharpen their words, and the words are designed for the 219 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:18,080 Speaker 1: simple task of stripping away the humanity of the other side. 220 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:22,200 Speaker 1: Now why does this work so well? Why are animal 221 00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:28,120 Speaker 1: metaphors so effective. It's because they reach down into the 222 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:33,880 Speaker 1: neural machinery and turn a dial. Under normal circumstances, when 223 00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:37,040 Speaker 1: you look at someone else and another person, you have 224 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:40,880 Speaker 1: regions of the brain that allow you to imagine their 225 00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:44,440 Speaker 1: inner life. Specifically, a region behind your forehead called the 226 00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:49,120 Speaker 1: medial prefrontal cortex gets involved when you consider that this 227 00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:55,320 Speaker 1: person has thoughts and feelings and plans and fears. That's 228 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:58,320 Speaker 1: what lights up when you see someone else as a 229 00:15:58,600 --> 00:16:02,560 Speaker 1: human reaching out to deal with a bicycle or a 230 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:06,280 Speaker 1: chair or a coffee machine. This area does not become active. 231 00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:09,400 Speaker 1: It's only active when you're dealing with a human, when 232 00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:13,400 Speaker 1: you're doing what researchers call a social cognition task. But 233 00:16:14,560 --> 00:16:17,680 Speaker 1: some years ago, my colleagues Lasana Harris and Susan Fiske 234 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:21,840 Speaker 1: at Princeton wanted to see if the amount this area 235 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:26,840 Speaker 1: is active depends on what you think about a particular group. 236 00:16:27,240 --> 00:16:30,520 Speaker 1: So they put people in the brain scanner fMRI, and 237 00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:34,560 Speaker 1: they showed them photographs of business people and athletes and 238 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:37,840 Speaker 1: the elderly, and nurses, and drug addicts and people who 239 00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:41,920 Speaker 1: were homeless. And here's what they found. While some pictures, 240 00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:46,400 Speaker 1: like wealthy people, triggered envy, this social region, the medial 241 00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:50,360 Speaker 1: prefrontal cortex was still active. Other photos, let's say a 242 00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:54,320 Speaker 1: very elderly people, triggered emotions of pity, and this social 243 00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:58,200 Speaker 1: region was still active. But when the brain looked at 244 00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:02,840 Speaker 1: pictures and felt discussed, like for pictures of homeless people 245 00:17:03,200 --> 00:17:07,080 Speaker 1: or drug addicts at rock bottom, the brain viewed them 246 00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:12,720 Speaker 1: not as humans with minds, but more like objects. That 247 00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:18,800 Speaker 1: is the humanization, your brain decides, and this is essentially 248 00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:24,359 Speaker 1: all subconsciously that this person does not count as another mind. 249 00:17:24,560 --> 00:17:30,239 Speaker 1: This person is neurally speaking, less than human. And by 250 00:17:30,280 --> 00:17:32,159 Speaker 1: the way, I'm linking all the relevant studies to the 251 00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:34,639 Speaker 1: show notes, I encourage you to check those out. So 252 00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:39,359 Speaker 1: let's return to propaganda. When some group of people is 253 00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:47,000 Speaker 1: portrayed as cockroaches or rats or babbling animal, barbarians, or 254 00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:51,320 Speaker 1: a virus or a robot or whatever, the social cognition 255 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:56,639 Speaker 1: regions like the medial prefrontal cortex get dialed down. The 256 00:17:56,720 --> 00:18:00,560 Speaker 1: brain no longer treats this other group as people with 257 00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:06,080 Speaker 1: a mind. Instead, people of that group become more like objects. 258 00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:10,720 Speaker 1: And when these circuits are not steering your decisions, violence 259 00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:16,040 Speaker 1: becomes psychologically easier. As an example, unless you are a vegetarian, 260 00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:19,359 Speaker 1: you don't really mind murdering a big, beautiful animal like 261 00:18:19,359 --> 00:18:21,800 Speaker 1: a cow or a bowl, because you want that burger, 262 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:24,560 Speaker 1: and that animal is just an animal to your mind, 263 00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:28,000 Speaker 1: it's not a human, and so your medial prefrontal cortex 264 00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:31,080 Speaker 1: is less active when you look at that cow, and 265 00:18:31,119 --> 00:18:33,200 Speaker 1: so you can take a knife to its throat without 266 00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:37,600 Speaker 1: that keeping you up at night, and that ease of killing. 267 00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:39,520 Speaker 1: Maybe it bothers you a little, but not enough to 268 00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:44,560 Speaker 1: stop doing it. That's what we see throughout history, over 269 00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:49,960 Speaker 1: and over, people murdering their neighbors after a sufficient amount 270 00:18:50,040 --> 00:18:55,480 Speaker 1: of messaging telling them that their neighbors aren't really humans. 271 00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:59,080 Speaker 1: They are less than humans, they're more like cows or worse, 272 00:18:59,359 --> 00:19:03,479 Speaker 1: they carry pestilence and they're dangerous. Now, next month, I'm 273 00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:05,320 Speaker 1: going to have a colleague of mine on the podcast 274 00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:08,159 Speaker 1: who pioneered a lot of these studies, Lassana Harris, So 275 00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:11,400 Speaker 1: we'll go into more detail about the prefrontal cortex then, 276 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:13,960 Speaker 1: But for today, I just want to make it crystal 277 00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:19,080 Speaker 1: clear that this dehumanization is the oldest trick in the 278 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:23,960 Speaker 1: playbook of propaganda. Dehumanizing another group doesn't have to be 279 00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:28,640 Speaker 1: about making watertight arguments for convincing people with data. It 280 00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:34,439 Speaker 1: can simply be about bypassing reason entirely and tampering directly 281 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:39,960 Speaker 1: with the machinery of social cognition. It's really important to 282 00:19:40,040 --> 00:19:43,800 Speaker 1: understand that this is a vulnerability built into the human brain. 283 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:47,800 Speaker 1: When the wind blows hard enough, the flame of your 284 00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:51,240 Speaker 1: social empathy gets blown out. So when we look at 285 00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:56,560 Speaker 1: Rwanda or Nazi Germany or America during wartime, we're seeing 286 00:19:56,600 --> 00:20:00,600 Speaker 1: a basic lesson about the architecture of our own We're 287 00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:06,159 Speaker 1: seeing how fragile our humanizing can be and how dangerous 288 00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:10,520 Speaker 1: it is when pundits and politicians and online influencers lay 289 00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:29,760 Speaker 1: their hands on the dials. Now, before I go on, 290 00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:31,720 Speaker 1: I want to make really clear why I'm devoting a 291 00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:34,359 Speaker 1: lot of my efforts to this sort of research is 292 00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:37,880 Speaker 1: because I think we can solve this, at least mostly, 293 00:20:38,359 --> 00:20:43,360 Speaker 1: and part of this comes down to education as a population. 294 00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:46,159 Speaker 1: If we can learn to recognize the tricks of the 295 00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:52,040 Speaker 1: trade of propaganda, that renders those tricks mostly impotent. Just 296 00:20:52,119 --> 00:20:55,240 Speaker 1: imagine that all the schools in the nation spent just 297 00:20:55,520 --> 00:20:58,439 Speaker 1: fifteen minutes teaching what I just told you. Then the 298 00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:02,480 Speaker 1: next time a student see some TikTokers say oh, those 299 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:05,560 Speaker 1: people are like animals, or that group is a disease 300 00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:09,320 Speaker 1: that's infecting our country, a light bulb goes on in 301 00:21:09,359 --> 00:21:12,560 Speaker 1: our kids' minds and they say, wait a minute, we've 302 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:17,719 Speaker 1: heard that before. That kind of simple recognition is ninety 303 00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:21,400 Speaker 1: percent of the game. That recognition turns all of us 304 00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:27,080 Speaker 1: from passive receivers into active listeners. Having knowledge about this 305 00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:31,159 Speaker 1: topic about how dehumanization works in the brain. Is the 306 00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:36,240 Speaker 1: difference between catching the contagion of hate and mounting an 307 00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:40,040 Speaker 1: immune response against it. So now let's turn to a 308 00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:43,600 Speaker 1: related issue, one which is equally important to the story, 309 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:47,480 Speaker 1: and again is deeply embedded in our brains, And that's 310 00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:52,399 Speaker 1: our predilection for in groups and outgroups. We are fundamentally 311 00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:56,560 Speaker 1: very tribal. We see this in so many ways, and 312 00:21:56,640 --> 00:21:59,320 Speaker 1: sometimes it doesn't matter, like which football team you root for, 313 00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:04,560 Speaker 1: but when when it comes to politics, it carries cognitive consequences. 314 00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:07,240 Speaker 1: You end up feeling certain that your side of the 315 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:11,000 Speaker 1: political aisle generally has the right idea and the other 316 00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:14,640 Speaker 1: half of the nation who knows what's infected their brains. 317 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:16,600 Speaker 1: And I just want to be crystal clear that it 318 00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:19,240 Speaker 1: doesn't matter which side of the aisle you're on, you 319 00:22:19,320 --> 00:22:22,960 Speaker 1: are likely to genuinely feel this about the other side, 320 00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:26,679 Speaker 1: and you'll feel like if they would only listen to 321 00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:30,280 Speaker 1: you and stop being so misinformed or stubborn or wrongheaded, 322 00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:36,480 Speaker 1: everyone would fundamentally come to agree with you. Now, if 323 00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:39,960 Speaker 1: we want to understand why humans divide so easily into 324 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:42,640 Speaker 1: in and out groups, we have to return to our brains, 325 00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:47,600 Speaker 1: in our psychologies, because long before Instagram or cable news, 326 00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:51,840 Speaker 1: or long before propaganda ministries and political campaigns, and even 327 00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:55,879 Speaker 1: long before there were even such things as nations, we 328 00:22:55,880 --> 00:23:00,040 Speaker 1: were wired for us versus them. If you picture the 329 00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:03,440 Speaker 1: world of our ancestors, you had small bands of maybe 330 00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:08,600 Speaker 1: one hundred or so hunter gatherers traveling together, depending on 331 00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:12,600 Speaker 1: each other for survival. These were people who shared food, 332 00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:17,960 Speaker 1: raised children, collectively, hunted side by side, defended one another 333 00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:21,840 Speaker 1: when predators or rivals approached. In that world, there wasn't 334 00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:26,080 Speaker 1: anything abstract about belonging. To be inside the group was life. 335 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,919 Speaker 1: To be outside might mean death, so you had to 336 00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:35,440 Speaker 1: be sensitive to this distinction. Our brains carry this inheritance, 337 00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:40,560 Speaker 1: and we are natural born categorizers. We draw circles around 338 00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:44,400 Speaker 1: us with them on the outside, and once that circle 339 00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:49,600 Speaker 1: is drawn, things inside feel safer and more trustworthy, and 340 00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:53,840 Speaker 1: things outside feel riskier and more dangerous. So there was 341 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:56,399 Speaker 1: a good experiment on this in the nineteen seventies. The 342 00:23:56,400 --> 00:24:00,640 Speaker 1: psychologist Henry Tefel wanted to know how little it would 343 00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:05,119 Speaker 1: take to spark the tribal machinery, so he brought in 344 00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:09,520 Speaker 1: volunteers and showed them slides of dots on a screen, 345 00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:13,960 Speaker 1: and he asked them to estimate how many dots there were. Then, 346 00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:18,240 Speaker 1: with a straight face, Taefel divided them into two groups, 347 00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:22,480 Speaker 1: overestimators and underestimators, and that was it. It was just 348 00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:27,960 Speaker 1: a label that represented a meaningless categorization. And yet right 349 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,600 Speaker 1: away people started favoring their own side. They gave more 350 00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:36,679 Speaker 1: rewards to fellow overestimators or to fellow underestimators, and not 351 00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:39,920 Speaker 1: to the other side. They rated their own group as 352 00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:43,760 Speaker 1: more likable and more trustworthy. The thing I want you 353 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:46,280 Speaker 1: to note here is that there was no deep history 354 00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:49,760 Speaker 1: or ideology here. This was just about dots on a 355 00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:54,200 Speaker 1: slide and more specifically belonging to one team or the other. 356 00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:59,720 Speaker 1: So the brain doesn't require a grand narrative to polarize, 357 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:04,040 Speaker 1: It doesn't need centuries of grievance. It just needs a category. 358 00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:08,320 Speaker 1: And once the category is there, the neural machinery of 359 00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:13,439 Speaker 1: favoritism for your group weres to life and seeing the 360 00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:17,600 Speaker 1: out group as fully human. That dials down. And even 361 00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:20,679 Speaker 1: earlier experiment on this was from nineteen fifty four. This 362 00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:25,160 Speaker 1: was called the robbers Cave experiment. The psychologist Muzifer Sharif 363 00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:28,520 Speaker 1: recruited two groups of eleven year old boys and took 364 00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:31,840 Speaker 1: them to a summer camp in Oklahoma. Yeah, for the 365 00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:34,600 Speaker 1: first week, the groups didn't even know the other existed. 366 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:39,119 Speaker 1: Each built their own identity. One group called itself the Rattlers, 367 00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:42,600 Speaker 1: the other the Eagles. They made flags, they sang songs, 368 00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:47,080 Speaker 1: they created rituals, and then once those identities had formed, 369 00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:51,600 Speaker 1: Sharif brought the two groups together and set them into competition. 370 00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:55,800 Speaker 1: There was baseball and tugawar and treasure hunts and so on, 371 00:25:56,280 --> 00:26:01,720 Speaker 1: and Sharif watched as things spiraled turned into food fights. 372 00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:05,960 Speaker 1: Food fights escalated into raids on each other's cabins. Cabin 373 00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:10,360 Speaker 1: raids escalated into rocks hurled across the camp, and by 374 00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:13,040 Speaker 1: the end the hostility was so intense that the researchers 375 00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:17,440 Speaker 1: had to physically intervene to keep the boys safe. What's 376 00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:21,240 Speaker 1: so striking about this is how quickly it happened. These 377 00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:25,600 Speaker 1: were boys who had no prior grudges, no ideological differences. 378 00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:30,520 Speaker 1: The researchers manufactured a divide out of thin air, and 379 00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:35,120 Speaker 1: the brains tribal machinery did the rest. And I wish 380 00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:38,600 Speaker 1: this only said something about psychology labs or summer camps, 381 00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:42,159 Speaker 1: but of course, we see the same story everywhere in 382 00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:45,280 Speaker 1: our society. So first let's take something that's not so terrible. 383 00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:50,760 Speaker 1: We see tribalism on full display every weekend in sports stadiums. Sports, 384 00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:55,280 Speaker 1: in a way are our culture's safe tribalism. They let 385 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:59,520 Speaker 1: us channel our loyalty and hostility into arbitrary groups. So 386 00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:03,480 Speaker 1: it's Yeas versus Red Sox, or Manchester United versus Liverpool, 387 00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:07,560 Speaker 1: or Cowboys versus forty nine ers. People chant, they paint 388 00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:11,280 Speaker 1: their faces, they wave flags, they curse at their rivals, 389 00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:15,480 Speaker 1: and for a few hours they experience the same surge 390 00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:20,000 Speaker 1: of in group bonding that once held hunter gatherer bands together, 391 00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:24,639 Speaker 1: and when the game ends, most fans go home without bloodshed. 392 00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:28,399 Speaker 1: Sports give us the thrill of us versus them in 393 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:33,440 Speaker 1: a contained, ritualized form. They act like a lightning rod, 394 00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:37,800 Speaker 1: grounding tribal energy, so it doesn't always arc into violence. 395 00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:43,120 Speaker 1: But outside the stadium, when the same circuitry is recruited 396 00:27:43,359 --> 00:27:49,800 Speaker 1: for politics, religion, race, the consequences aren't so harmless because 397 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:54,200 Speaker 1: then the stakes are higher and the hostility doesn't turn 398 00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:57,040 Speaker 1: off when the whistle blows. So here's what the neurosigence 399 00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:00,280 Speaker 1: shows us about this. The amigdala, which we often think 400 00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:04,400 Speaker 1: of as a detector of fear, is also a sentinel 401 00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:09,000 Speaker 1: for otherness. It flares up when we see faces from 402 00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:14,199 Speaker 1: outside our group. The salience network orients our attention to 403 00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:20,080 Speaker 1: those differences, telling the brain this matters. Watch closely. Meanwhile, 404 00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:24,719 Speaker 1: the chemicals involved in bonding, like oxytocin. These surge up 405 00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:28,760 Speaker 1: when we're with our in group, rewarding us for loyalty, 406 00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:33,080 Speaker 1: for cooperation, for connection. It feels good to be with us, 407 00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:38,360 Speaker 1: which by implication, makes them feel even more alien. Okay, Now, 408 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:42,080 Speaker 1: when we're talking about summer camps or sports, that's one thing. 409 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:46,400 Speaker 1: But now take tribal categories and add decades or centuries 410 00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:51,120 Speaker 1: of history and culture, and toss in some ideology, whether 411 00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:55,680 Speaker 1: political or religious or whatever. Then the effect really deepens. 412 00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:59,160 Speaker 1: So my lab Ryan is study on this. Imagine yourself 413 00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:03,280 Speaker 1: lying on back in a brain imaging machine fMRI. You 414 00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:08,000 Speaker 1: see a screen with six people's hands on it, and 415 00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:11,240 Speaker 1: the computer goes around and randomly picks one of the hands. 416 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:15,719 Speaker 1: Then you see that hand get stabbed with a syringe needle. 417 00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:20,280 Speaker 1: Now your brain has a very fast and low level response. 418 00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,760 Speaker 1: A network of areas comes online and we summarize that 419 00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:26,880 Speaker 1: as the pain matrix. This is the same set of 420 00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:30,200 Speaker 1: areas that would come online if your hand was getting stabbed. 421 00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:32,920 Speaker 1: But the interesting part is that this is not your hand. 422 00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:36,640 Speaker 1: You're watching someone else's hand get stabbed. And this is 423 00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:41,640 Speaker 1: the neural basis of empathy. You see something happen to 424 00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:46,000 Speaker 1: someone else, but your brain runs a simulation about how 425 00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:49,480 Speaker 1: that must feel and how that would hurt. Okay, but 426 00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:53,680 Speaker 1: now the experiment changes. We add a one word label 427 00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:58,840 Speaker 1: to each hand Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, scientologist to atheists, 428 00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:01,480 Speaker 1: and now you watch the computer pick one of these 429 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:04,920 Speaker 1: hands at random and get stabbed. And the question is 430 00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:09,120 Speaker 1: does your brain care more when it is a member 431 00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:12,680 Speaker 1: of your in group and doesn't care less when the 432 00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:16,239 Speaker 1: hand is labeled as any one of your outgroups? And 433 00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:19,080 Speaker 1: that is precisely what happens. We tested over one hundred 434 00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:23,160 Speaker 1: people of all different faiths, including atheists, and that's the 435 00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:27,360 Speaker 1: clear picture. When the suffering belongs to a hand labeled 436 00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:31,120 Speaker 1: as your group, the pain matrix has a big response, 437 00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:34,440 Speaker 1: But when the very same pain is inflicted on a 438 00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:39,600 Speaker 1: member of an outgroup, those circuits dim The response is weaker, 439 00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:45,720 Speaker 1: so your brain distributes empathy unequally. It follows the boundaries 440 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:49,200 Speaker 1: of us and them. Other colleagues of might have found 441 00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:52,920 Speaker 1: exactly the same pattern. For example, my colleague Tanya Singer, 442 00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:58,040 Speaker 1: she studied this with soccer fans. She recruited diehard supporters 443 00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:01,400 Speaker 1: of teams and put them into brains scanners and showed 444 00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:06,400 Speaker 1: them videos of fans receiving painful shocks. Sometimes it was 445 00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:10,920 Speaker 1: fellow fans, sometimes it was rival fans, and when their 446 00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:16,120 Speaker 1: own teams fans suffered, these empathy circuits came online. But 447 00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:19,640 Speaker 1: when the rival fans took the same shock, there was 448 00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:23,320 Speaker 1: less of a response, and in some brains something even 449 00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:27,880 Speaker 1: more surprising appeared, which was activity in the reward circuits. 450 00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:32,800 Speaker 1: The suffering of rivals didn't just fail to evoke empathy, 451 00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:38,000 Speaker 1: it evoked pleasure. So when we talk about polarization, we're 452 00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:42,840 Speaker 1: talking about deep circuits firing in the brain, circuits designed 453 00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:46,479 Speaker 1: long ago for survival and small tribes. And these circuits 454 00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:51,240 Speaker 1: are fast and automatic and they run reliably under the hood. 455 00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:54,360 Speaker 1: So when we look at all these studies together, from 456 00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:57,600 Speaker 1: the circuits that involved looking at fellow humans to the 457 00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:00,160 Speaker 1: circuits that come online when we watch other people and 458 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:02,960 Speaker 1: pain when you put all these studies together, it's clear 459 00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:07,680 Speaker 1: that empathy is not a light that shines equally on everyone. 460 00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:11,520 Speaker 1: It depends on who is in your in groups and 461 00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:14,640 Speaker 1: who in your outgroups. Now, I want to point out 462 00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:17,760 Speaker 1: two more related aspects of polarization that I think are 463 00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:20,520 Speaker 1: often left out of the conversation. The first has to 464 00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:24,920 Speaker 1: do with identity and the second with belonging. So let's 465 00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:29,120 Speaker 1: start with identity. In twenty sixteen, Jonas Kaplan and Sam 466 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:33,160 Speaker 1: Harris invited people to participate in an fMRI study, so 467 00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:36,080 Speaker 1: people would lie down in the brain scanner and see 468 00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:40,080 Speaker 1: statements about politics. Some of the statements were neutral, but 469 00:32:40,280 --> 00:32:46,480 Speaker 1: others directly contradicted the participants' core political beliefs. What happened 470 00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:50,400 Speaker 1: was that the amygdala and the insula lit up. And 471 00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:54,000 Speaker 1: these are the same regions we see when the body 472 00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:58,280 Speaker 1: feels physically threatened. In other words, when people encountered ideas 473 00:32:58,360 --> 00:33:02,760 Speaker 1: that clashed with their politics, their brains reacted as though 474 00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:06,440 Speaker 1: under siege. But this is another way. Someone disagreeing with 475 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:09,880 Speaker 1: your politics is not experienced as oh, that's interesting, you 476 00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:13,400 Speaker 1: have a different opinion. It's experienced as something analogous to 477 00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:18,760 Speaker 1: you are attacking me. When political belief is wired into 478 00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:22,600 Speaker 1: the same threat circuitry as our sense of self. Then 479 00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:27,400 Speaker 1: it's no surprise that debate becomes combat or that political 480 00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:31,640 Speaker 1: disagreement is perceived as aggression. It is no wonder that 481 00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:34,920 Speaker 1: arguments get so heated at the dinner table. It's no 482 00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:39,280 Speaker 1: wonder that threads on social media devolve into shouting matches. 483 00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:42,360 Speaker 1: From the point of view of the brain, in these situations, 484 00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:45,960 Speaker 1: people feel like they're in danger. When some people say 485 00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:50,800 Speaker 1: things like words are violence, that squelch is meaningful thinking 486 00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:53,840 Speaker 1: and is quite frankly spineless. But when I saw this 487 00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:57,120 Speaker 1: study some years ago, I thought, ah, okay, that's why 488 00:33:57,160 --> 00:33:59,760 Speaker 1: they're saying it. This is no defense of shutting down 489 00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:03,560 Speaker 1: free speech, but it sheds light on why people deep 490 00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:07,000 Speaker 1: down really want to maintain free speech for their side 491 00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:26,120 Speaker 1: but shut it down for the other side. So this 492 00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:30,120 Speaker 1: is a very important issue about how beliefs become identity. 493 00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:33,160 Speaker 1: You always see this in the language that we use. 494 00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:36,680 Speaker 1: People will say things like as a conservative or as 495 00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:40,200 Speaker 1: a progressive, I believe, and the signals that what we're 496 00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:44,480 Speaker 1: about to hear has elements of a self definition. It's 497 00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:49,840 Speaker 1: embedded in their identity. And when identity is threatened people 498 00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:52,759 Speaker 1: double down. In fact, a bunch of studies show that 499 00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:57,560 Speaker 1: when deeply held beliefs are challenged, people often emerge even 500 00:34:57,640 --> 00:35:00,520 Speaker 1: more convinced of their beliefs. This is a cognitive bias 501 00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:04,600 Speaker 1: called the backfire effect, in which a person's beliefs become 502 00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:10,080 Speaker 1: more entrenched and stronger when presented with evidence that contradicts them. 503 00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:13,880 Speaker 1: And it's precisely because it's a form of defense against 504 00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:19,440 Speaker 1: a personal attack. Now, this hopefully makes it clear why 505 00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:24,840 Speaker 1: facts alone so rarely change minds. Present somebody with evidence 506 00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:28,759 Speaker 1: that contradicts their worldview, and you might expect to see curiosity, 507 00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:32,480 Speaker 1: but we rarely see that. We see resistance. The brain 508 00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:36,360 Speaker 1: is protecting what it perceives as the self. Now, just 509 00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:39,759 Speaker 1: to be clear, this isn't about laughing at other people's foibles. 510 00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:43,359 Speaker 1: We've all felt this ourselves at some level. Really, think 511 00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:46,960 Speaker 1: about a time when someone questioned something that you felt 512 00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:50,040 Speaker 1: was core to who you are. Maybe it was your 513 00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:54,399 Speaker 1: religious beliefs, or your political stance, or something about your 514 00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:59,160 Speaker 1: country of origin or whatever. Chances are, your body reacted. 515 00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:01,880 Speaker 1: Maybe you had a quickening heart rate or a flush 516 00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:05,680 Speaker 1: of heat, or a tightening in your chest. Your threat 517 00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:10,480 Speaker 1: circuits were activated. Your amigdala and insula were firing. Your 518 00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:15,400 Speaker 1: brain was preparing to defend itself. Now, not all beliefs 519 00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:19,160 Speaker 1: are fused with identity. If someone challenges your belief about 520 00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:22,120 Speaker 1: the best way to fix the car engine or which 521 00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:25,760 Speaker 1: restaurant has the best tacos, you might say, okay, cool, 522 00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:29,239 Speaker 1: I'll think about that. That's a belief floating freely. It's 523 00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:32,560 Speaker 1: not attached to your selfhood. But if someone challenges your 524 00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:37,359 Speaker 1: belief about your values, your tribe, your politics, that's more 525 00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:40,319 Speaker 1: fused with your identity, and you are more likely to 526 00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:44,319 Speaker 1: defend that with vim and vigor. Now, one of the 527 00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:48,120 Speaker 1: dangers about a period of high polarization is that more 528 00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:52,120 Speaker 1: and more beliefs become fused with who you are, so 529 00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:57,400 Speaker 1: it pretty quickly reaches beyond people disagreeing about academic theories, 530 00:36:57,400 --> 00:37:02,359 Speaker 1: of taxation or healthcare. The political disagreements get bundled up 531 00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:06,360 Speaker 1: with identities. Who you vote for, where you live, what 532 00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:11,160 Speaker 1: media you consume, what brands you buy. A red baseball 533 00:37:11,239 --> 00:37:15,279 Speaker 1: cap or a rainbow flag can suggest to you things 534 00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:19,280 Speaker 1: about a person's politics before a single word is spoken. 535 00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:23,799 Speaker 1: There's also a psychological comfort infused identity, which brings us 536 00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:26,399 Speaker 1: to the second point. It tells you who you are, 537 00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:31,040 Speaker 1: and it tells you who your people are. In other words, 538 00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:34,400 Speaker 1: while it's often tempting to think about polarization as something 539 00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:37,799 Speaker 1: about social media and news stations, underneath all of that 540 00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:42,920 Speaker 1: there's another angle which is belonging. For example, I mentioned 541 00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:46,680 Speaker 1: earlier the hormone oxytocin. This is often called the love 542 00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:50,600 Speaker 1: hormone or the bonding hormone, and that's because it surges 543 00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:53,719 Speaker 1: when we hug, when we kiss, when we fall in love, 544 00:37:54,040 --> 00:37:58,560 Speaker 1: and more generally, it helps bond groups together. It strengthens 545 00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:03,239 Speaker 1: trust between friends. If you could bottle the warmth of 546 00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:07,480 Speaker 1: human closeness, oxytocin would be one of the main ingredients. 547 00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:12,320 Speaker 1: But there's a dark side to the oxytocin story because 548 00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:18,840 Speaker 1: other research has shown that it increases empathy and generosity selectively. 549 00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:22,160 Speaker 1: What it does is it sharpens the line between us 550 00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:25,960 Speaker 1: and them. So, for example, in one experiment, participants were 551 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:30,399 Speaker 1: given oxytocin and then they played a little economics game 552 00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:33,640 Speaker 1: with each other where they're making trades, and what happens 553 00:38:33,800 --> 00:38:37,800 Speaker 1: is that when they have this extra oxytocin, people become 554 00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:42,240 Speaker 1: more generous towards members of their own group, but less 555 00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:48,080 Speaker 1: generous toward outsiders. The same chemical that makes them extend 556 00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:52,239 Speaker 1: kindness to their in group members turns them against their outgroup. 557 00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:55,880 Speaker 1: It's like you've only got so much ability to bond 558 00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:59,800 Speaker 1: and that all gets funneled to your tribe. And oxytocin 559 00:38:59,920 --> 00:39:04,120 Speaker 1: is one of several chemicals involved. You've heard of dopamine, 560 00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:07,240 Speaker 1: which is involved in the reward system. The research shows 561 00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:10,960 Speaker 1: that dopamine release is higher when we cooperate with in 562 00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:15,840 Speaker 1: group members. Same thing happens with serotonin, which helps regulate 563 00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:20,520 Speaker 1: feelings of trust and belonging. You've also got endorphins, which 564 00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:24,800 Speaker 1: flow during synchronized activities that you do with an in group, 565 00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:28,200 Speaker 1: and this, I suspect is why rituals matter so much. 566 00:39:28,239 --> 00:39:31,880 Speaker 1: I devoted episode fifty four to this question of why 567 00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:37,160 Speaker 1: armies march in step, or why religious congregations chant together, 568 00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:41,800 Speaker 1: or why sports fans do things in unison. Synchronized movement 569 00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:47,320 Speaker 1: and shared rhythms amplify endorphin release, creating a larger sense 570 00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:53,840 Speaker 1: of us. So collectively, these are the biological undercurrents of 571 00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:57,920 Speaker 1: human connection, and they have evolved to feel good to us. 572 00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:02,040 Speaker 1: We like to be coordinate with our in groups, but 573 00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:06,440 Speaker 1: The problem is that the stronger the US, the sharper 574 00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:08,640 Speaker 1: than them. All you have to do is study any 575 00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:12,440 Speaker 1: war period or even just highly polarized period to see 576 00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:16,160 Speaker 1: that the stronger the in group bond, the more ferocious 577 00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:21,000 Speaker 1: the outgroup hatred. So all this is to say, part 578 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:24,600 Speaker 1: of why polarization can feel so intoxicating is that it's 579 00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:28,880 Speaker 1: not just the anger or outrage piece. It's equally the 580 00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:33,799 Speaker 1: belonging piece to be part of aside to march and 581 00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:37,800 Speaker 1: step with others, to chant the same slogans, to share 582 00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:42,319 Speaker 1: the same memes. That is rewarding to the brain and 583 00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:46,360 Speaker 1: even in some ways addictive. So I've told you several 584 00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:51,160 Speaker 1: different aspects of polarization, from dehumanization to propaganda, to in 585 00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:55,319 Speaker 1: groups and outgroups, to issues of identity and belonging. But 586 00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:58,239 Speaker 1: this was all table setting because what I really want 587 00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:01,000 Speaker 1: to do is pose the critical question and what do 588 00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:04,440 Speaker 1: we do about all this? If we understand something about 589 00:41:04,480 --> 00:41:08,920 Speaker 1: the neuroscience that leads to polarization, can we use this 590 00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:12,839 Speaker 1: same knowledge to do something about it. That's what part 591 00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:15,320 Speaker 1: two of this podcast is going to be next week. 592 00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:18,240 Speaker 1: But there's one piece that I want to flag again, 593 00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:22,080 Speaker 1: which is education. To my mind. The most important thing 594 00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:25,239 Speaker 1: we can do is teach people about what's going on 595 00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:29,319 Speaker 1: at the intersection of brains and politics, because that's the 596 00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:34,000 Speaker 1: only way we don't fall for it every time. We 597 00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:38,920 Speaker 1: need to be able to recognize when language collapses humans 598 00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:44,520 Speaker 1: into pests, or when headlines portray opponents as monsters, or 599 00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:50,160 Speaker 1: when memes strip away complexity in favor of ridicule. People, 600 00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:54,279 Speaker 1: especially young people, need to be able to recognize when 601 00:41:54,320 --> 00:41:59,440 Speaker 1: these ancient levers are being pulled. Why because propaganda is 602 00:41:59,560 --> 00:42:02,480 Speaker 1: never going going away. As long as we have brains 603 00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:06,600 Speaker 1: that can be polarized, there will be people who try 604 00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:10,080 Speaker 1: to exploit that for whatever reasons, their own beliefs, or 605 00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:13,799 Speaker 1: they realize it's working to give them power, or it 606 00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:18,240 Speaker 1: gives them a solid sense of belonging. Whatever the reason, 607 00:42:18,640 --> 00:42:22,920 Speaker 1: people will always pull these tricks. And the best defense, 608 00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:27,319 Speaker 1: possibly the only defense, is simply awareness. To understand how 609 00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:30,719 Speaker 1: these tricks work, so we can recognize them from a 610 00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:35,520 Speaker 1: mile away. That way we can at least resist the poll. So, 611 00:42:35,680 --> 00:42:39,240 Speaker 1: in closing today, where does this leave us? My position 612 00:42:39,280 --> 00:42:43,080 Speaker 1: here is that you can't explain polarization only in terms 613 00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:46,240 Speaker 1: of social media or which party is winning the election. 614 00:42:46,560 --> 00:42:49,920 Speaker 1: We also have to understand the brains that we are 615 00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:54,840 Speaker 1: all yoked with. We began with cockroaches on the Rwandan radio, 616 00:42:55,400 --> 00:42:59,479 Speaker 1: rats and Nazi cartoons, apes and American posters. We saw 617 00:42:59,560 --> 00:43:03,279 Speaker 1: how quickly the brain can dial down empathy when the 618 00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:07,640 Speaker 1: right metaphors are deployed. We follow the circuitry into the lab, 619 00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:12,200 Speaker 1: where empathy surges for in groups but dims for rivals. 620 00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:15,400 Speaker 1: We saw children at summer camp turn into enemies in 621 00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:19,040 Speaker 1: a manner of hours. We traced the pull of identity, 622 00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:23,080 Speaker 1: the power of disgust, and the shadow side of the 623 00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:27,040 Speaker 1: hormones and chemicals that bond us. The end result is 624 00:43:27,040 --> 00:43:31,160 Speaker 1: that our threat circuitry is like a smoke detector set 625 00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:34,960 Speaker 1: on high sensitivity. It goes off at the faintest whiff, 626 00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:38,640 Speaker 1: even when there's no fire. And we've seen how history, 627 00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:44,040 Speaker 1: again and again has weaponized these vulnerabilities of the brain. 628 00:43:44,520 --> 00:43:46,879 Speaker 1: But this is all just laying the foundation, and now 629 00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:49,480 Speaker 1: we're ready to see next week. My argument that this 630 00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:53,680 Speaker 1: is not destiny. The challenge for us is not to 631 00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:57,600 Speaker 1: abolish tribalism, because I'm not sure that we can, but 632 00:43:57,640 --> 00:44:00,960 Speaker 1: instead to channel it, to find out that let us 633 00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:07,320 Speaker 1: experience belonging without dehumanization generally to expand the circle of 634 00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:10,399 Speaker 1: who counts as us, and I'll explain how we can 635 00:44:10,440 --> 00:44:14,480 Speaker 1: do that, and to learn to recognize the tricks of dehumanization, 636 00:44:14,960 --> 00:44:19,000 Speaker 1: because somehow every generation falls for them anew like it's 637 00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:23,480 Speaker 1: the first time. We now have more educational firepower than 638 00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:26,840 Speaker 1: we've ever had in global history, and it's time to 639 00:44:26,840 --> 00:44:30,640 Speaker 1: make sure everyone knows the tricks of the trade so 640 00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:34,440 Speaker 1: we can have some immunity against them. When we understand 641 00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:39,160 Speaker 1: the neuroscience of polarization, we have the opportunity to derive 642 00:44:39,200 --> 00:44:41,960 Speaker 1: a little bit of hope because the same brains that 643 00:44:42,040 --> 00:44:47,080 Speaker 1: divide us under different conditions can unite us. The key 644 00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:49,759 Speaker 1: thing about the brain is that it's live wired. It's 645 00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:53,839 Speaker 1: always adapting, it's always reshaping its circuitry. So what we'll 646 00:44:53,880 --> 00:44:58,200 Speaker 1: see next week is that even when tribalism mutes empathy, 647 00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:03,920 Speaker 1: shared goals and cooperation can reignite it. And where propaganda 648 00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:08,960 Speaker 1: can dimn humanness perspective, taking can light it up again 649 00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:12,760 Speaker 1: to see how we might build a better world. Please 650 00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:18,760 Speaker 1: join me next week for part two. Go to Eagleman 651 00:45:18,840 --> 00:45:21,600 Speaker 1: dot com slash podcast for more information and to find 652 00:45:21,680 --> 00:45:25,640 Speaker 1: further reading. Join the weekly discussions on my substack and 653 00:45:25,719 --> 00:45:29,160 Speaker 1: check out Subscribe to Inner Cosmos on YouTube for videos 654 00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:32,719 Speaker 1: of each episode and to leave comments until next time. 655 00:45:32,880 --> 00:45:40,640 Speaker 1: I'm David Eagleman and this is Inner Cosmos.