How Cognitive system Influence Political behavior?
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Cognitive biases that influence decision making may influence citizen decisions that affect public policy. When choices are made based on principles other than maximizing utility for all, utility is less likely to be maximized and citizens suffer as a result. These biases have an impact on how we perceive the world and can lead to poor decision-making. The phrase “attentional bias” refers to the way certain characteristics of a person’s attention influence their perception. Cigarette smokers have been shown to have an attentional preference for smoking-related stimuli. The two major parties of Australia are identical in their belief in big government, a lightly regulated market and the welfare state. The difference is in how liberals and conservatives interpret the world through different brain wiring, argues Thomas. Higher in the pecking order means more privilege, better living standards, and voluntary or forced acquiescence from those below, to those above.
Cognitive biases that influence decision making may influence citizen decisions that affect public policy. When choices are made based on principles other than maximising utility for all, utility is less likely to be maximized, and citizens suffer as a result. In this section, I will describe some basic arguments about citizen decisions, using voting as an example. Numerous types of cognitive biases have now been recognised and investigated by researchers. These biases have an impact on how we perceive the world and can lead to poor decision-making. I distinguish two sorts of values that, when influencing political action, may result in suboptimal outcomes: confirmation biase and attentional biase (Baron, 2010).
Here we compare and contrast two cognitive biases (confirmation and attentional biases).
Confirmation bias is a psychological phenomenon in which a person accepts references or results that reinforce his or her current belief in something. Despite the fact that we believe we are logical beings, our thoughts are frequently skewed and influenced by evidence that supports our beliefs. A confirmation bias is a sort of cognitive bias in which you prefer information that supports your already held views or prejudices (Arceneaux, 2012). Confirmation bias arises when a person filters out information and views that contradict their prior ideas. Even when someone is attempting to be impartial, when a choice is taken before all of the evidence has been evaluated, there is a risk of succumbing to confirmation bias (Ball, 2017). Confirmation bias may lead to data confabulation, which is the selective and sometimes deceptive use of evidence to support an already formed conclusion. To cope with and resist confirmation bias, it is critical to be aware of its presence as well as the risk it poses. It is also critical to actively seek out information that contradicts a previously held idea, to ask opposing or challenging questions, and to keep information pathways open in order to continuously update present views. We have a tendency to absorb only fresh information that confirms our pre-existing beliefs. This is equally probable – and perhaps more hazardous – in the field of analytics, where outputs may affect choices at the highest levels (Peters, 2020).
Assume that a person believes that left-handed individuals are more creative than right-handed ones.
The phrase “attentional bias” refers to the way certain characteristics of a person’s attention influence their perception. Attentional biases may explain why an individual fails to consider other alternatives while they are engrossed with a current train of thought. Cigarette smokers have been shown to have an attentional preference for smoking-related stimuli around them due to their heightened reward sensitivity (Dennis-Tiwary, 2019). Attentional bias has also been connected to clinically significant symptoms such as anxiety and sadness. When people or groups pay greater attention to stimuli that are more salient or important to them, this is referred to as attentional bias. Attentional bias is manifested in the first orienting and maintenance stages of information processing . Attentional bias refers to our inclination to focus on certain things while ignoring others. Many different factors have been shown to influence our attention, ranging from external events and stimuli (such as a perceived danger to our safety) to internal sentiments (such as hunger or sadness). (Kruijt, 2018)
The two major parties of Australia are identical in their belief in big government, a lightly regulated market and the welfare state. The difference is only in degree.
The Australian Labour party believes we should have a comprehensive and generous welfare state after the fashion of Europe, which would take the amount of government spending as a percentage of GDP to around 45%. They prefer more regulation. (Weber, 2019)
From my viewpoint, these days, Labour & the Liberals have become increasingly divergent in their approach to major issues to the extent that they are readily differentiated.
For a time, they were much the same. But the Liberals trying to get elected put in the hard yards to appear different, and unfortunately, mistaking a protest vote for a popular vote, they went overboard in their quest.
Back in 2013, “the Mad Monk” and “the Fat Guy” showed us the true colours of where the Liberals were heading. Totally elitest, totally un-Australian!
Still, there is a fractuous, unimaginative right wing hampering government direction. It has been said that Turnbull would have made a great Labour PM. His difficulty is he joined the Liberals! And as in the days of Howard, and Hanson’s first incarnation, the Liberals have tended to bend towards Hanson in her second incarnation, giving Turnbull the appearance of being impotent & ineffective as the Liberal’s leader (Sloman, 2017).
I am a liberal and I understand some conservatives very well.
I would doubt there is much difference in actual IQ between the populations. The difference is in how liberals and conservatives interpret the world through different brain wiring.
Conservatives have an authoritarian rule-based morality. Rules come from the power of arbitrary authority. Whatever the rules are, they must be obeyed. If the authority figure legalises genocide, conservatives will participate without compunction. Following orders It is all about obedience, order, and particularly the pecking order. Class is a central prism with which conservatives understand each other. Higher in the pecking order means more privilege, better living standards, and voluntary or forced acquiescence from those below, to those above. No matter where a conservative stands in the order, the highest morality is “knowing your place.” If you know your place, the chain of authority figures above you will look out for you and provide your commensurate proportion (Rasmussen, 2016). Your dignity is earned through conformity and will be taken away if you fail to toe the line. You can be gay, black, poor “trash”, or an immigrant, as long as you exhibit unfailing subservience to authority and hide any trace of non-conformity. In fact, such conformance against your own nature (remaining in the closet) and obedient acceptance of your lower standing is highly prized and rewarded, confirms Clarance Thomas.
I find that liberals focus highly on a multifaceted collective as well. They love to box people into different groups and try to address equality differently for each group.
Conservatives view the individual. Regardless of where that individual comes from, what God they worship, what their race is, all of that means little to conservatives, as the individual is the commander of their own destiny. They should reap the rewards of their success and be held accountable for their failures or mistakes.
Liberals are idealists, whereas conservatives are more pragmatic.
References
A.P, F., 1996. Social cognition is thinking about relationships. Curreru Directions in Psychological Science.
Arceneaux, K., 2012. Cognitive Biases and the Strength of Political Arguments, s.l.: American journal of political science.
Ball, P., 2017. The trouble with scientists. How one psychologist is tackling human biases in science., s.l.: s.n.
Baron, J., 2010. Cognitive biases in moral judgments that affect political behavior, s.l.: s.n.
Dennis-Tiwary, T. A., 2019. Heterogeneity of the Anxiety-Related Attention Bias: A Review and Working Model for Future Research, s.l.: s.n.
Jarvis, R., 1989. Political psychology: Some challenges and opportunities. Political Psychology.
Keeter, S., 1996. What Americans know about politics and why it marters. Yale university press.
Kruijt, A., 2018. No evidence for attention bias towards threat in clinical anxiety: A meta-analysis of baseline bias in attention bias modification RCTs, s.l.: s.n.
Peters, U., 2020. What Is the Function of Confirmation Bias?, s.l.: SpringerLink.
Rasmussen, S. H. R., 2016. Cognitive Ability Rivals the Effect of Political Sophistication on Ideological Voting, s.l.: s.n.
Sloman, S. &. F. P., 2017. The knowledge illusion: Why we never think alone, New York: Riverhead Press.
Weber, S. S. a. E. U., 2019. The Cognitive Science of Political Thought: Practical Takeaways for Political Discourse, s.l.: s.n.
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