Media contributions
1Media contributions
Title The Freedom House, a Building With a Notorious Past in the Slave Trade, Is For Sale: raceAhead Degree of recognition International Media name/outlet Fortune Media type Print Country/Territory Netherlands Date 7/10/19 Description Why do people believe extreme things? People who gravitate to extreme ideologies have certain psychological characteristics in common, regardless of what their beliefs are, new research suggests. Netherlands-based researchers Jan-Willem van Prooijen and André P. M. Krouwel have found four elements that largely define people who are vulnerable to extreme and often dangerous views. “We specifically examine the relationships between political extremism and (a) psychological distress, (b) cognitive simplicity, (c) overconfidence, and (d) intolerance.” It’s fascinating stuff, but here’s the short version: Psychological stress, which people experience when their lives feel meaningless and their economic lives are uncertain, leads to an attempt to find a black-and-white explanation for their troubled world. That explanation inspires a false sense of clarity, followed by a rejection of other explanations and groups. “Through the combined processes of cognitive simplicity and overconfidence, extremists may experience their moral judgments as moral absolutes that reflect a simple and universal truth.”
Sage JournalsURL https://fortune.com/2019/10/07/hed-raceahead/ Persons André Krouwel