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J. Paul Neeley
On OpinionEpisodes
J. Paul Neeley
On Opinion
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S2 E29: Our Stone-Age Brains“We have mental mechanisms that have been there since the Stone Age and no longer function in this environment”Short-term thinking, lazy reasoning and stereotyping, and too much focus on what’s bad (the ‘negativity b
S2 E28: The Spirituality Movement“A lot of those who’ve left the church tend to be younger people, who nonetheless still consider themselves spiritual. They’ve been turned off by churches, but they haven’t necessarily gone full atheist, materia
S2 E27: Generational Politics“If you truly understand what’s different between generations, you have a much better idea of what’s coming up in the future.”It turns out there are very real differences between the generations. Key external events
S2 E26: Political Predisposition“40% of the variance observed in political attitudes can be attributed to genetics”Twin studies have suggested that one third of our political orientation can be traced to our genes. But does that mean our politi
S2 E25: On Emotion“The world that we live in today is fuelled by heightened emotion…”Over the course of these two seasons of On Opinion, we’ve looked at opinions through the lens of philosophy, psychology, social science, anthropology and evolu
S2 E24: The Journal of Controversial Ideas“You can’t have a good education if you’re not exposed to ideas you don’t agree with”Twelve years ago, Francesca Minerva published an academic article in the Journal of Medical Ethics giving a moral def
S2 E23: The Evolution of Cooperation“Every multicellular being is a collective that operates as a whole - the individual is an ‘invention’ of evolution”Cooperation is at work up everywhere - from our ‘selfish’ genes working together in the geno
### S2 E22: Psychometrics: measuring ourselves> _“Psychometrics is one of the most important or influential areas of applied psychology”_Psychometrics, the study of personality and ability, began with the Chinese Imperial Court exams, which mea
“Dehumanisation both justifies and motivates acts of extraordinary violence - but it is not in any sense an innate disposition”Here lies the terrifying quandary: if humans are the most social of all primates and mammals, if our sociality and ca
“Dehumanisation is a psychological process, and every psychological process can be used for good or bad.”Humanisation (attributing motive and consciousness) and dehumanisation are flip sides of common cognitive processes, what Harris calls “Fle
“We often treat privacy as a quick fix for much deeper social problems - like prejudice and bias”Our lives are constantly documented. Our Facebook likes, our Tweets and even our credit card statements all reveal information about us. But what a
“Our inner and outer crises are two sides of the same coin”There are many lenses through which to explain polarisation - economic, political, demographic, evolutionary… Alex Evans wants us to consider it from a psychological perspective.Alex ha
“The avoidance of conflict is actually the real problem”We traditionally view an argument as a symptom of a problematic relationship, but relationship psychologists have found that they actually lead to healthier and happier people. Children wh
“The disadvantaged don’t make the world, they cope with it”Since Etienne de la Boetie’s Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (1577), we have asked ourselves why the weak, the poor and the marginalised accept injustice.Social scientists talk to econ
"Populism is a permanent shadow of modern representative democracy, and a constant threat"The last few decades has seen a democratic drift, as populist leaders emerge all over the world - from Bolsonaro and Trump in the Americas, through Orban,
“The more we increase the connectivity of people, the more people get stuck in extreme positions and echo chambers on the extreme edges of our belief structures.”In December 2017, Jens Koed Madsen heard Mark Zuckerberg talking about the power o
Michael Shermer is one of the world’s most prominent skeptics - founder of The Skeptic Society and editor of its magazine Skeptic. Once a fundamentalist Christian, Michael has spent his career uncovering the workings and causes of our 'Believin
Roberto Foa's research on Global Dissatisfaction with Democracy and Youth Dissatisfaction with Democracy uncovered the highest rates of dissatisfaction in decades, particularly amongst young people.“The majority of Americans today are dissatisf
“There’s a subtle but crucial difference between ‘Opponent’ and ‘Enemy’”If Polarization is on the rise around the world, it takes different forms. The “Ideas Landscape” in the US, UK, France and Germany is very different, with the US - unfortun
“The key division in all political systems is the result of two distinct perceptions of the most dangerous threats”Western politics have traditionally been divided into Conservatives and Liberals - tradition vs egalitarianism. John Hibbing, who
“We synchronise together through processes of emotional contagion and social conformity… This helps produce a shared experience of the world.”Human beings are social creatures. But is this social nature more than just a desire to be connected?
“You really do have to do bridge building at the community level. People have to learn to talk to each other across sides”The Left and the Right today are miles apart. In the past few years, polarisation has become an integral part of our socie
“Dyadic morality is ultimately about the link between perceived harm and immorality…”Why do we believe murder is “wrong”? Why can’t we compare the effects of a hurricane with the acts of a paedophile? Kurt Gray argues that human morality stems
“A lot of the human behaviour that seems perplexing, irrational (like politics or religion) is often most effectively explained by Evolutionary Psychology”We evolved to live in hunter-gatherer communities clustered in small units spread sparsel
“Microaggressions are so hard because they typically don’t meet traditional philosophical conceptions of blameworthiness…”Microaggressions are the latest front in the culture wars - seemingly harmless comments such as “yes, but where are you re
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