An Article Worth Writing a Book About

Good news, everyone. The other side really is stupid.

For the past few years, I've vacillated between having a compassionate view of the people I disagree politically with and hating their guts. The hating is easy. It's one of many reasons I try to temper it by running through an internal dialogue like this: "Yes, I passionately think people who support Bush are wrong. But those people think just as passionately that I am wrong. So that's not a fair criterion. Maybe we are both being reasonable, but just operating from different assumptions that are difficult to prove or disprove."

It turns out all my self-talk and efforts to give my ideological opposites the benefit of the doubt was pointless. Because, you see, they really are stupid.

I know now! There's a study to prove it! The Program of International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) just released another excellent study, this one analyzing the difference between what a presidential candidate's supporters think he supports vs. what he actually supports.

The PDF of the study is worth reading, but if you are short on time, check out the summary and this graph reprinted on Kevin Drum's blog.

Psychology teachers must have loved the last four years. It's the perfect complement to basic issues in the field of psychology, like why people continue to hold onto beliefs even after the evidence for the belief has been disproved. It's also frightening how almost a majority of Americans are willing to substitute reason for faith.