← Home
Sean Carroll's Mindscape · February 17, 2025 · 75m
305 | Lilliana Mason on Polarization and Political Psychology
Lilliana Mason on political polarization research. Americans aren't deeply divided on policy — they're divided on identity. Partisan hatred has become a mega-identity that absorbs race, religion, geography, and culture into a single tribal divide.
This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.
Canon
•
Mason: partisan identity has become a false self for millions of Americans. They don't hold political beliefs based on evidence — they adopt beliefs that signal tribal membership. The 'political self' overrides the 'thinking self.'
•
Mason: partisan identity is the mechanism through which political falsehood spreads. People believe misinformation that supports their party and reject accurate information that challenges it — not because they're stupid but because identity trumps evidence.
Was this useful?