There's nothing wrong with this article; the last line is perhaps the most important. But in terms of the Broader Discourse on this point, a lot of folks seem to have unrealistic expectations of what education & knowledge accomplish. (1/n) washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/0…
The general idea is that fancy Ivy League educations mean that folks like Cruz and Hawley should "know better." Putting aside the elitism involved in accepting that premise, there are a number of ways that it us not consistent with what we know about education & knowledge. (2/n)
Following Converse (1964), we've known for a long time that variables like education and knowledge are associated with a stronger rather than weaker tendencies to hew to an ideological worldview. (3/n)
Moreover, knowledge -- even fairly domain-specific knowledge -- is often associated with more rather than less motivated reasoning in favor of desired conclusions: (4/n) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…
Education (and in some cases political knowledge) may also strengthen rather than weaken the influence of group prejudices on policy judgment: (5/n) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111…
Lastly, education and knowledge appears to strengthen rather than weaken the link between needs for security and certainty and political preferences, rather than uniformly blocking rigid motivations: (6/n) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…
In other words, there's no reason to believe that knowledge of the law & politics, as imparted in the hallowed halls of Harvard Law and Yale Law, will invariably discipline strong identity-based motivations to reach certain conclusions & pursue parochial goals. (7/7)

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More from @ChrisPolPsych

16 Nov 20
Since we're now in another period of center-left hand-wringing about What The Election Results Mean (absent complete data on what actually happened, of course), let me note a few things I believed on the basis of research even before the election. (1/n)
Americans are operationally liberal, but symbolically / philosophically conservative, per Ellis & Stimson and Free & Cantril before them (2/n). amazon.com/Ideology-Ameri…
To some extent, this means that the symbolism of the left -- as valued by elites and activists -- is not what Democrats should lead with or put up front. In a sense, that symbolism is esotericism that many people do not relate to. (3/n)
Read 14 tweets
14 Nov 20
There some decent (though very general) words of caution in this thread. My concern is that people are already drawing big strategic and ideological conclusions from aggregate returns, (flawed) exit polls, and anecdotes. (1/n)
It's possible that Ds suffered downballot & localized losses because a few Dems in Congress call themselves 'socialists' or because 'defund the police' was an ill-advised slogan, but we don't know that yet. (2/n)
This could be as simple as the electorate being diff when Trump is on the ballot ('16, '20) vs when he is not ('18). A lot of the House seats Ds got in '18 were pretty marginal/red, and Trump's presence could have shifted things just enough to make things tougher for Ds. (3/n)
Read 5 tweets
12 Oct 20
This article's framing is a testament to the weird way elite political actors and commentators talk about religiosity, effectively as a brand that has utility to some & disutility to others. (1/4) nytimes.com/2020/10/11/us/…
For all the thematic talk here of a 'new conservatism' that is 'rooted in faith,' the article pretty clearly notes that the dominant influence on Barrett's actual jurisprudence is the same 'originalist' philosophy as most other right-leaning judges. (2/4)
I mean, there's a whole section in there where she more or less talks about her discovery of originalism the way the college-rock artists of my generation talk about the time they first heard the Velvet Underground or something. (3/4)
Read 4 tweets
6 Jul 20
This piece from @OsitaNwanevu is well-worth the read, and I agree with most of it. (1/n) newrepublic.com/article/158346…
An ancilliary point I'd make is the kind of liberalism discussed in the piece is deeply detached from reality, and even utopian in some respects. (2/n)
One thing I have in mind here is the expectation that an 'ideal' politics should be free of concerns about group identity and group interest and instead animated by 'rational' individuals exploring ideas. (3/n)
Read 22 tweets
1 Jul 20
There's a good point in this @ezraklein piece, which is especially hammered home by commentary from @ThatSaraGoodman: there's an element of contingency in the consequences of polarization & sorting. (1/n) vox.com/2020/7/1/21308…
It is true that the parties are sorted ideologically and in terms of social identity -- and also that there are robust left/right diffs in (self-reported) psychological traits and needs. (2/n)
But elite opinion leadership is still part of this story, both in terms of facilitating sorting + polarization and bringing out their consequences in novel situations, such as the current pandemic. (3/n)
Read 6 tweets
23 Jun 20
A disturbing possibility we need to discuss is that the serious empirical flaws of article in question might have slipped through the review process partly *because* of its problematic normative implications. (1/n)
Research that is simultaneously shaky in terms of its empirics *and* problematic in normative or political terms may simply be hard to process in an environment where reviewers & editors are afraid of being accused of PC censorship. (2/n)
This environment has been solidified -- whether intentionally or not -- by years of commentary about a need for 'viewpoint diversity' from prominent voices in psychological science. (3/n)
Read 8 tweets

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