This cognitive bias can push people into more extreme ideological positions | BPS

if an opposing candidate has mostly mainstream views but holds a few extreme positions, people tend to assume that the candidate’s supporters voted for them because of, not in spite of, the candidate’s extreme positions—despite no evidence that this is true.

All it takes is a little bit of bias for almost everyone to end up surrounded entirely by people like them. As Case and Hart put it, “Small individual bias can lead to large collective bias.” In a simplified simulation like this, the only way areas stay diverse—racially, ethnically, politically—is if people prefer diversity significantly more than

We often find ways to dismiss evidence that we don’t like. And the opposite is true, too: when evidence seems to support our preconceptions, we are less likely to look too closely for flaws. The more extreme the emotional reaction, the harder it is to think straight.

Researchers in Canada and the United States began a 2017 study by asking a politically diverse and well-educated group of adults to read arguments confirming their beliefs about controversial issues. When participants were then given a chance to get paid if they read contrary arguments, two-thirds decided they would rather not even look at the coun

The researchers found that Democrats prepared better for the meeting, as measured by a more comprehensive essay, when they were contradicted by a Republican rather than a fellow Democrat; for Republicans, it was the same (but with the parties switched). These results suggest that social diversity prompts us to work harder to address disagreement. I