The human brain is not built for democracy

Ajackson17
Ajackson17 Members Posts: 22,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
Why our brains aren't built for democracy

The role of our 'lizard brain' in determining how we vote
By Nicola Luksic and Tom Howell, CBC News Posted: Oct 01, 2014 8:09 PM ET Last Updated: Oct 02, 2014 12:26 PM ET

While electing a mayor or prime minister can often be a head-scratching process, a provocative new thesis from the University of British Columbia suggests our brains may not be cut out for the political system we’ve created.

We may, in fact, be too dumb for democracy.

David Moscrop, a Ph.D political science candidate at UBC, points out that modern democracy was built on the idea that citizens are rational and autonomous.

But he says voters across the political spectrum are more likely to vote with instinct than reason.

“We’re motivated by our so-called 'lizard brains,'” says Moscrop.
He says the voting public isn't encouraged to wade through political platforms to make informed decisions.

“It’s about messaging and name familiarity. And it reflects our own vulnerability to being manipulated -- which is why attack ads work and sound bites work.”

Mental limitations

The “lizard brain” is a catch-all term for the areas of our brain that developed between 500 million and 150 million years ago and are primarily responsible for instinct, emotion and recording memories, as well as visceral feelings that influence or even direct our decisions.

The neocortex, on the other hand, is the area of our brain responsible for reason, language, imagination, abstract thought and consciousness. Scientists say the neocortex has only been around for two or three million years.

When it comes to understanding the workings of the human brain, it's worth remembering that only a small percentage of our active brain is conscious.

It is impossible to quantify, but scientists say roughly 95 per cent of our brain activity is subconscious or unconscious.

“It is flawed to think that we’re fully in control,” says Tanya Chartrand, professor of neuroscience and psychology at Duke University.

“We don’t have the mental capacity to process everything in our environment with conscious awareness and intent, so we pay attention to a small percentage of the environment at any given time. But in the background, we’re non-consciously processing much, much more. And non-conscious processing later influences the decisions we make.”

Chartrand points to a famous study published in 1996, in which psychologist John Bargh and his team at New York University assigned research subjects the task of reworking sentences.

The subjects working with words associated with the elderly – words such as "retirement" and "Florida" – left the research lab walking more slowly than their counterparts who were given neutral words.

Psychologists refer to this effect as "priming," and this experiment is just one of many that demonstrates our susceptibility to suggestion.

Political preferences are pre-formed

“You would think that for high-involvement situations, like deciding on who to vote for, we should be creating spreadsheets of pros and cons and deliberately considering the pros and cons of candidates’ platforms,” saysChartrand.

But the truth is, most of us don’t.

Moscrop says that election campaigns are run on a presumption that voters’ political preferences are already formed.

A campaign, then, isn’t really about engaging citizens in a rigorous exchange of transformative ideas, but rather reaffirming people’s existing ideological biases and mobilizing citizens to vote for their respective camp.

If the goal of democracy is to engage in a rigorous exchange of ideas that results in a greater good for all citizens, one of the first things to do is downplay the role of television ads during election campaigns, says University of Toronto philosophy professor Joseph Heath.

“Reason resides in language and our ability to explicitly articulate how we get from point A to point B in an argument,” says Heath.

“If you’re trying to communicate through visual stimulation, it won’t encourage a rational appreciation of things, and that has a bunch of implications. Reason is very, very slow. Speed encourages gut reactions.”

Heath also thinks it would be a good idea to get rid of cameras in the House of Commons.

“The way we organize Question Period in Canada is ridiculous,” he says. He believes providing MPswith questions in advance of Question Period, for example, would foster a reasoned exchange of ideas.

Right now, he says, “It’s gotcha moments -- questions are not provided in advance. The goal is to catch the minister unaware. And that degrades Canadian political discourse.”

Designing a ‘user-friendly’ democracy

In his recent book, Enlightenment 2.0: Restoring Sanity to Our Politics, Our Economy, and Our Lives, Heath argues for a re-think of the expectations we have of individual citizens as well as the democratic structures we operate in.

“We’ve tended to think of human rationality as something located deep inside our brains. Whereas new psychological research shows that rationality is achieved through collaboration with people in groups and in a particular environment,” says Heath.

Heath says that the political system should be conceived with our cognitive limitations in mind. He puts an emphasis on design. Two-year-olds can figure out how to operate an iPad, for example, because it is designed in a way that plays on human instinct.

“I would love to see a discussion about social institutions that could be built to better suit the way we operate,” he says.
Moscrop is a strong supporter of the idea of “deliberative” democracy, providing resources and incentives to citizens from all political stripes so that they can gather to discuss and advise on policy, using the results to influence politicians and also educate other citizens.

Such a practice, Moscrop hopes, would build civic engagement better than the current game of party politics, with its narrow focus on the ballot box.

He believes that if we acknowledge our mental limitations, we can design a democracy that takes into account our cognitive flaws.

“You change the structure, and the way things operate is going to change. But at the moment, the incentives are all there to do things at a base level.”

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/why-...? -1.2784220


Comments

  • _Lefty
    _Lefty Members Posts: 6,564 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The Lazy human brain isn't built for democracy.
  • Ajackson17
    Ajackson17 Members Posts: 22,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
    _Lefty wrote: »
    The Lazy human brain isn't built for democracy.

    It takes a lot to power our brain and once we stop exercising it and I often do meditation which helps me rationalize and think better. I think we can get to that point but it takes hard work and commitment to truly know thyself and pushing our mind to the limit to break free out of that reptilian mind. I hope this makes sense.
  • jono
    jono Members Posts: 30,280 ✭✭✭✭✭
    He says the voting public isn't encouraged to wade through political platforms to make informed decisions.

    “It’s about messaging and name familiarity. And it reflects our own vulnerability to being manipulated -- which is why attack ads work and sound bites work.”

    If this is true we are also too dumb for economics which works the same way.

    Politics is primarily about selling yourself, marketing yourself. The product is you, the consumer is the voter. The idea is to get the voter to accept what you are selling and some consumers have a bias or preference. The same concept applies some people just like Coke more than Pepsi, some just like Republicans more than Democrats (or whatever the parties are called in Canada.)

    I don't think it has much to do with our brains at all because humans have always had democratic and socialist systems throughout history.

    Cooperation and democracy are our natural state, republics and capitalism are what we are trying to force ourselves to accept.
  • Ajackson17
    Ajackson17 Members Posts: 22,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
    This does explain a lot of posters thinking and how they tend to obj....I mean subjectively think on issues.
  • _Lefty
    _Lefty Members Posts: 6,564 ✭✭✭✭✭
    _Lefty wrote: »
    The Lazy human brain isn't built for democracy.

    It takes a lot to power our brain and once we stop exercising it and I often do meditation which helps me rationalize and think better. I think we can get to that point but it takes hard work and commitment to truly know thyself and pushing our mind to the limit to break free out of that reptilian mind. I hope this makes sense.

    I play a lot of chess and read to keep me sharp. No skill stays the same, you either get better worsen.
  • _Lefty
    _Lefty Members Posts: 6,564 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I honestly think our brains are more powerful than we will ever know. They haven't built a supercomputer more powerful yet. I just don't think we know how to access all that we have.
  • Dr.Chemix
    Dr.Chemix Members Posts: 11,816 ✭✭✭✭✭
    What are they talking about?

    Democracy simply means "the mob decides". The reasoning behind people's votes has nothing to do with the definition of democracy.
  • Ajackson17
    Ajackson17 Members Posts: 22,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
    _Lefty wrote: »
    _Lefty wrote: »
    The Lazy human brain isn't built for democracy.

    It takes a lot to power our brain and once we stop exercising it and I often do meditation which helps me rationalize and think better. I think we can get to that point but it takes hard work and commitment to truly know thyself and pushing our mind to the limit to break free out of that reptilian mind. I hope this makes sense.

    I play a lot of chess and read to keep me sharp. No skill stays the same, you either get better worsen.

    true true.
  • Ajackson17
    Ajackson17 Members Posts: 22,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
    _Lefty wrote: »
    I honestly think our brains are more powerful than we will ever know. They haven't built a supercomputer more powerful yet. I just don't think we know how to access all that we have.

    Meditation and connecting our chakras.
  • texas409
    texas409 Members Posts: 20,854 ✭✭✭✭✭
    My brain wasnt built to read all of that
  • KingFreeman
    KingFreeman Members Posts: 13,731 ✭✭✭✭✭
  • CeLLaR-DooR
    CeLLaR-DooR Members Posts: 18,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
    This meant to be some new discovery? Studied this in school, except ? were sayin' that we weren't socially developed enough for democracy to work properly as opposed to this ? sayin' our brains aren't up to the task.
  • Focal Point
    Focal Point Members Posts: 16,307 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Our bias and mob mentality is problematic
  • Ajackson17
    Ajackson17 Members Posts: 22,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Question everything even if it seems right
  • The Lonious Monk
    The Lonious Monk Members Posts: 26,258 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I think the article does support the brain not being built for democracy as much as it supports the effectiveness of the cheap tricks used in the democratic process. Seems to me that all that would really need to be done is more regulation that forces candidates to stick to facts and pertinent points. That would never happen of course, but I think people would make much wiser choices in leaders if it did.
  • janklow
    janklow Members, Moderators Posts: 8,613 Regulator
    Seems to me that all that would really need to be done is more regulation that forces candidates to stick to facts and pertinent points. That would never happen of course, but I think people would make much wiser choices in leaders if it did.
    i bet we COULD get a bunch of politicians to agree with that while still lying their ? off.

  • LUClEN
    LUClEN Members Posts: 20,559 ✭✭✭✭✭
    This reminds me of the study about bias that found people will incorrectly answer a math problem that involves calculating percentages about gun violence in order to give an answer that aligns with their political stance

    http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2319992
  • Big James
    Big James Members Posts: 345 ✭✭✭✭
    This is complete ? !
  • kingblaze84
    kingblaze84 Members Posts: 14,288 ✭✭✭✭✭
    jono wrote: »
    He says the voting public isn't encouraged to wade through political platforms to make informed decisions.

    “It’s about messaging and name familiarity. And it reflects our own vulnerability to being manipulated -- which is why attack ads work and sound bites work.”

    If this is true we are also too dumb for economics which works the same way.

    Politics is primarily about selling yourself, marketing yourself. The product is you, the consumer is the voter. The idea is to get the voter to accept what you are selling and some consumers have a bias or preference. The same concept applies some people just like Coke more than Pepsi, some just like Republicans more than Democrats (or whatever the parties are called in Canada.)

    I don't think it has much to do with our brains at all because humans have always had democratic and socialist systems throughout history.

    Cooperation and democracy are our natural state, republics and capitalism are what we are trying to force ourselves to accept.

    This is basically what I think, we took a good idea like capitalism and turned it into a way to exploit people and society at large for the demands and needs of a few people. This is what is really messing up our political state, not democracy itself. Otherwise, I would ask what is the human brain built for.
  • kingblaze84
    kingblaze84 Members Posts: 14,288 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I doubt the human brain is built for a dictatorship, unless that dictator takes care of a people's complete basic needs, like North Korea is doing. It's amazing how long that nation has been under that kind of rule and there has yet to be signs of real revolution taking place there.
  • zombie
    zombie Members Posts: 13,450 ✭✭✭✭✭
    every democracy on earth eventually falls to some kind of dictatorship people will say they want to be equals and live in freedom but all people really want is for someone to take their problems away. without proper order people are lazy, greedy, hedonistic and generally only care about themselves ? the future and the well being of the state that that ensures that future.

    and that's why governments that take into account human nature generally do better and last longer. our democratic/capitalist system works because people are greedy. Dictatorship works because most people are cowards and cruel.
  • kingblaze84
    kingblaze84 Members Posts: 14,288 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2014
    zombie wrote: »
    every democracy on earth eventually falls to some kind of dictatorship people will say they want to be equals and live in freedom but all people really want is for someone to take their problems away. without proper order people are lazy, greedy, hedonistic and generally only care about themselves ? the future and the well being of the state that that ensures that future.

    and that's why governments that take into account human nature generally do better and last longer. our democratic/capitalist system works because people are greedy. Dictatorship works because most people are cowards and cruel.

    I mostly agree but dictatorships wouldn't work if most people were cruel. Most people are like sheep, and cowardly could be seen as basically true (you think I'm a coward cuz I don't want kids, which is funny).

    Most people are greedy though, that's definitely true and it will be our downfall. Word to America's 17 trillion dollar debt, which has bankrupted Americans for generations and doomed a lot of America's population
  • zombie
    zombie Members Posts: 13,450 ✭✭✭✭✭
    zombie wrote: »
    every democracy on earth eventually falls to some kind of dictatorship people will say they want to be equals and live in freedom but all people really want is for someone to take their problems away. without proper order people are lazy, greedy, hedonistic and generally only care about themselves ? the future and the well being of the state that that ensures that future.

    and that's why governments that take into account human nature generally do better and last longer. our democratic/capitalist system works because people are greedy. Dictatorship works because most people are cowards and cruel.

    I mostly agree but dictatorships wouldn't work if most people were cruel. Most people are like sheep, and cowardly could be seen as basically true (you think I'm a coward cuz I don't want kids, which is funny).

    Most people are greedy though, that's definitely true and it will be our downfall. Word to America's 17 trillion dollar debt, which has bankrupted Americans for generations and doomed a lot of America's population

    people are cruel that's how the the rulers stay in power someone has to do the ? work for example most of the top SS men and normal nazis were simple looking/corny ? but ? gave them an outlet and excuse to be wicked and they took it up with zeal.

    the same thing goes for alot of police officers and correctional officers. stop worrying about the debt it's really not as big of a problem as some people make it out to be and will be dealt with to begin with most of it is domestically owned. america having high debt is not good but it's far from what you characterize it as, once again stop being scared of everything.
  • Focal Point
    Focal Point Members Posts: 16,307 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Good debt makes the world go round