EP 715 Why Does Being Wrong Matter Less Than Being Part of a Community of Like Thinkers?

I remember a popular song back in the day whose title was “If Loving You is Wrong I Don’t Want to Be Right” and while that was about love, how is it that we in this society almost 50 years later have transferred that concept to our politics?  Are we really that isolated and disconnected with other people, that we need to join a political team, on line or in our imagination, to feel a sense of belonging?  What happened to church groups, fraternal organizations or softball teams?  In the book “Wrong: How Media, Politics, and Identity Drive Our Appetite for Misinformation,” Dannagal Goldthwaite Young, a professor of political science and communication at the University of Delaware, tries to explain why this is happening.  Her conclusion is that if being wrong allows us to comprehend the world, have control over it and connect with our community all in service to our political team, then we don’t want to be right.  Like advertising honchos figured out a long time ago, those psychological needs can drive us to want a product that might not benefit us, or in this case, our country, at all.  A new way of looking at our polarized America today on the podcast.

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