The Emotional Process of Political Opinion Formation

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A lot of political opinion formation is a chiefly emotional process, or at least preponderantly emotional for a certain part of it. I see outwardly a movement of angry, rageful people pushing angry,. rageful policies. But as a writer who actually studies people and understands some of the emotion and psychology behind these things, that's not all I see. I see a posture of big, tough guineness, masking a lot of men who are really fucking confused and scared.

This is the third episode in a three-part series about how to have difficult conversations with people who see the world differently, how to have better debates about contentious issues, and how to ethically and scientifically persuade one another about things that matter – in short, this is a three-part series about How Minds Change (which is also the title of my new book).

There seems to be a movement afoot, a new wave of nonfiction about how to reduce all this argumentative madness and epistemic chaos. I want to boost everyone’s signal on this issue, so I thought it would be nice to collaborate instead of compete, since that’s part of what we are all proselytizing with these books.

So this episode’s guest is Anand Giridharadas, the author of The Persuaders – a book about activists, politicians, educators, and everyday citizens who are on the ground working to change minds, bridge divisions, and fight for democracy.

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