A new study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science journal has found that regardless of political affiliation, tribal instincts kick in and people’s ability to think logically suffers when it comes to arguments related to their political belief systems.
The study by researchers exploring American liberals and conservatives revealed some interesting findings.
“When two sides don’t share a common view of even seemingly objective facts, these differences become embedded in our collective reasoning ability,” says Sean Wojcik (University of California, Irvine), a lead coauthor of the paper.
“Our biases drive us apart not only in our disagreements about political and ideological worldviews, but also in our understanding of logic itself,” he adds.
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The observation by authors: “We might not be as vigilant as we think” about the logical grounding of our own beliefs and “we might be unreasonably harsh about the logical grounding of awed arguments, suggest the researchers.