Emotions & Political Thinking

[bayou]

I'm sure most people believe they use rational thinking when it comes to defending their political views. A study performed by a psychologist from Emory U. demonstrated that political thinking is mostly emotional. Now I understand all of the ranting and raving going on in P&N.

Tests show poiltical thinking is emotional

 

[ntdz]

Doesn't suprise me at all...

 

[sandorski]

Repost x3....perhaps 4

 

[Moonbeam]

I would have never suspected this. Why it's just amazing. One day researchers might even discover that the emotions involved are self hate. But no, that can't be so. I know I'm OK. Yes it must be true because already I feel better.

 

[JackStorm]

This became obvious to me long ago. No surprise here. But it would be nice if more people realized this and "engage in ruthless self-reflection" as the article says.

 

[bayou]

WOW, P&N might become a nicer place to hang out in. There wouldn't be any flames or some may even actually think before posting.

 

[LumbergTech]

just because someone feels emotional about a subject does not necessarily mean that his or her belief is soley based off of that alone

 

[M00T]

Originally posted by: LumbergTech
just because someone feels emotional about a subject does not necessarily mean that his or her belief is soley based off of that alone

Emotion fuels belief.

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: LumbergTech
just because someone feels emotional about a subject does not necessarily mean that his or her belief is soley based off of that alone

Um, the conclusion was: "But the new research suggests that for partisans, political thinking is often predominantly emotional."

There was also this: "Researchers have long known that political decisions are strongly influenced by unconscious emotional reactions, a fact routinely exploited by campaign consultants and advertisers."

It went on to imply that only a remorseless self analysis could bypass these facts.

I suspect then that you only reiterate what was clearly stated that you do so because you don't want to think this psychology applies to you. Everybody assumes that because their feelings are unconscious that they don't exist. But that is not so. This is the root of bigotry actually, the presence of negative feelings toward some purported taboo that automatically is called evil because of the unconscious feeling. The bigot cannot say why something is bad in any rational way that is not a rationalization of intellect in the service of feeling. And all the while the bigot will remain innocent of any awareness of his bigotry. His belief is accepted as absolute truth based on nothing but the unconscious, but often powerful feeling.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam

Exactly!

 

[Moonbeam]

I can't believe the huge response this thread got. Obviously everybody has been applying a tremendous amount of remorseless self analysis to it, right?

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
I can't believe the huge response this thread got. Obviously everybody has been applying a tremendous amount of remorseless self analysis to it, right?

LOL, I do what I can with what I have.

I've been wondering how this "discovery" applies to the differnce I observe in people's empathy? One person will have oddles of empathy and the next person has walls 100 feet high and appears to have no empathy whatsoever.

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
I can't believe the huge response this thread got. Obviously everybody has been applying a tremendous amount of remorseless self analysis to it, right?

LOL, I do what I can with what I have.

I've been wondering how this "discovery" applies to the differnce I observe in people's empathy? One person will have oddles of empathy and the next person has walls 100 feet high and appears to have no empathy whatsoever.

Personally I think empathy has something to do with both the amount of pain a person has experienced and how in touch with that pain a person is. I think a lack of empathy may occur where the experience of another person's pain isn't tolerable because it pushes some enormous but repressed pain to the surface. The walls are there to insure that does not happen. This is why not knowing what you feel is how we are sick.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
I can't believe the huge response this thread got. Obviously everybody has been applying a tremendous amount of remorseless self analysis to it, right?

LOL, I do what I can with what I have.

I've been wondering how this "discovery" applies to the differnce I observe in people's empathy? One person will have oddles of empathy and the next person has walls 100 feet high and appears to have no empathy whatsoever.

Personally I think empathy has something to do with both the amount of pain a person has experienced and how in touch with that pain a person is. I think a lack of empathy may occur where the experience of another person's pain isn't tolerable because it pushes some enormous but repressed pain to the surface. The walls are there to insure that does not happen. This is why not knowing what you feel is how we are sick.

Those walls are not always easy to find, either, even when you know they are there.

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: Cerb

Originally posted by: Moonbeam

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
I can't believe the huge response this thread got. Obviously everybody has been applying a tremendous amount of remorseless self analysis to it, right?

LOL, I do what I can with what I have.

I've been wondering how this "discovery" applies to the differnce I observe in people's empathy? One person will have oddles of empathy and the next person has walls 100 feet high and appears to have no empathy whatsoever.

Personally I think empathy has something to do with both the amount of pain a person has experienced and how in touch with that pain a person is. I think a lack of empathy may occur where the experience of another person's pain isn't tolerable because it pushes some enormous but repressed pain to the surface. The walls are there to insure that does not happen. This is why not knowing what you feel is how we are sick.

Those walls are not always easy to find, either, even when you know they are there.

So so so so so true. That is why we need a mirror of which there are two general types. One is the tip we get when we live our lives and have some negative emotional reaction. That's the clue that the some problem is there. The other and also hard to fine, is a guide who once had such walls and knows all about them.

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam

Originally posted by: Cerb

Originally posted by: Moonbeam

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
I can't believe the huge response this thread got. Obviously everybody has been applying a tremendous amount of remorseless self analysis to it, right?

LOL, I do what I can with what I have.

I've been wondering how this "discovery" applies to the differnce I observe in people's empathy? One person will have oddles of empathy and the next person has walls 100 feet high and appears to have no empathy whatsoever.

Personally I think empathy has something to do with both the amount of pain a person has experienced and how in touch with that pain a person is. I think a lack of empathy may occur where the experience of another person's pain isn't tolerable because it pushes some enormous but repressed pain to the surface. The walls are there to insure that does not happen. This is why not knowing what you feel is how we are sick.

Those walls are not always easy to find, either, even when you know they are there.

So so so so so true. That is why we need a mirror of which there are two general types. One is the tip we get when we live our lives and have some negative emotional reaction. That's the clue that the some problem is there. The other and also hard to fine, is a guide who once had such walls and knows all about them.

Well, I know I've found some walls and torn them down and felt damn good about it. I know where some are that I'm working on, but I also know I have some that I know are there but have no idea where or what to do about them. I feel uncomfortable, even fearul thinking about those walls, let alone finding them and tearing them down. I think it is a fear of being totally exposed and not measuring up, but it may even be deeper then that??

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit

Originally posted by: Moonbeam

Originally posted by: Cerb

Originally posted by: Moonbeam

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
I can't believe the huge response this thread got. Obviously everybody has been applying a tremendous amount of remorseless self analysis to it, right?

LOL, I do what I can with what I have.

I've been wondering how this "discovery" applies to the differnce I observe in people's empathy? One person will have oddles of empathy and the next person has walls 100 feet high and appears to have no empathy whatsoever.

Personally I think empathy has something to do with both the amount of pain a person has experienced and how in touch with that pain a person is. I think a lack of empathy may occur where the experience of another person's pain isn't tolerable because it pushes some enormous but repressed pain to the surface. The walls are there to insure that does not happen. This is why not knowing what you feel is how we are sick.

Those walls are not always easy to find, either, even when you know they are there.

So so so so so true. That is why we need a mirror of which there are two general types. One is the tip we get when we live our lives and have some negative emotional reaction. That's the clue that the some problem is there. The other and also hard to fine, is a guide who once had such walls and knows all about them.

Well, I know I've found some walls and torn them down and felt damn good about it. I know where some are that I'm working on, but I also know I have some that I know are there but have no idea where or what to do about them. I feel uncomfortable, even fearul thinking about those walls, let alone finding them and tearing them down. I think it is a fear of being totally exposed and not measuring up, but it may even be deeper then that??

I think it is only slightly deeper than that. I don't think you can be exposed or not measure up because you are a fantastic guy. I think all that can happen now to you, and it's not a real evil, is that you remember some time(s) in your past before you could protect yourself like you really can now, where you were ripped up and made to feel ridicule. I think all of our worst fears have already happened and it's only because of that that we can imagine them. You have no worries at all that the Morgluk will think you are slee. And praise be to God, too, for nothing is worse than that.

 

[GhostDoggy]

I originally thought only women were 'emotional', but then I observed all those pu$$ies talking politics and thorwing common sense and logic to the win ....

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: GhostDoggy
I originally thought only women were 'emotional', but then I observed all those pu$$ies talking politics and thorwing common sense and logic to the win ....

To be emotional generally speaking, I think, implies that somebody is easily moved to expressing feelings. But whether emotional or not, everybody has feelings. It is that men repress certain kinds of emotion more than women. This is the male emotional disease often referred to in short hand as macho man. But in neither case is there much difference in awareness of what it is one is feeling. Most feelings are there to hide others far more terrifying.

That is why people progress through various stages, depression, the suppression of all feeling, to rage, the defense against sadness, itself a defense against grief, which at last brings one to a real genuine actual feeling to which, when fully felt, will bring memory of what one is grieving about. They and only then does one become conscious of what it is one is really feeling, when one gets back to the real. It is then also where one can begin to heal.

Did you but suffer you would not suffer......a saying attributed to Jesus

 

[LumbergTech]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam

Originally posted by: LumbergTech
just because someone feels emotional about a subject does not necessarily mean that his or her belief is soley based off of that alone

Um, the conclusion was: "But the new research suggests that for partisans, political thinking is often predominantly emotional."

There was also this: "Researchers have long known that political decisions are strongly influenced by unconscious emotional reactions, a fact routinely exploited by campaign consultants and advertisers."

It went on to imply that only a remorseless self analysis could bypass these facts.

I suspect then that you only reiterate what was clearly stated that you do so because you don't want to think this psychology applies to you. Everybody assumes that because their feelings are unconscious that they don't exist. But that is not so. This is the root of bigotry actually, the presence of negative feelings toward some purported taboo that automatically is called evil because of the unconscious feeling. The bigot cannot say why something is bad in any rational way that is not a rationalization of intellect in the service of feeling. And all the while the bigot will remain innocent of any awareness of his bigotry. His belief is accepted as absolute truth based on nothing but the unconscious, but often powerful feeling.

not everyone is sucked in by cultural norms....and you can claim what you want about how i gain my true motivations but i think its a bit more complex than to say that i can only desire what my emotions allow me to..that really doesnt say much at all

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: LumbergTech

Originally posted by: Moonbeam

Originally posted by: LumbergTech
just because someone feels emotional about a subject does not necessarily mean that his or her belief is soley based off of that alone

Um, the conclusion was: "But the new research suggests that for partisans, political thinking is often predominantly emotional."

There was also this: "Researchers have long known that political decisions are strongly influenced by unconscious emotional reactions, a fact routinely exploited by campaign consultants and advertisers."

It went on to imply that only a remorseless self analysis could bypass these facts.

I suspect then that you only reiterate what was clearly stated that you do so because you don't want to think this psychology applies to you. Everybody assumes that because their feelings are unconscious that they don't exist. But that is not so. This is the root of bigotry actually, the presence of negative feelings toward some purported taboo that automatically is called evil because of the unconscious feeling. The bigot cannot say why something is bad in any rational way that is not a rationalization of intellect in the service of feeling. And all the while the bigot will remain innocent of any awareness of his bigotry. His belief is accepted as absolute truth based on nothing but the unconscious, but often powerful feeling.

not everyone is sucked in by cultural norms....and you can claim what you want about how i gain my true motivations but i think its a bit more complex than to say that i can only desire what my emotions allow me to..that really doesnt say much at all

In the first place nobody said what you refute and secondly, knowledge about the power of unconscious feelings to persuade the mind of the reasonableness of desires is far far far from any normative belief. You are far more in line with the norm.

What you might consider is the fact that reality cares not a wit what you think. You are subject to human psychology regardless of whatever protest you wish to make.