COMPASS to Election Psychology #4 - Politicians are fighting over 'us' and 'them' – and your Stone Age brain can't keep up – with Carolin Hjort Rapp

KOMPAS

Mar 13.

“The climate fanatics,” “those from the Middle East,” “the un-Danish,” “the far right.” Twelve parties are vying for your vote. Twelve parties are trying to tell you who’s in the group and who’s out. And you love it!

In this episode of *Kompas til Valgets Psykologi*, hosts Sigge Winther and Lars Hvidberg, along with associate professor of political science Carolin Hjort Rapp, delve into “in-group bias,” which simply means that a love hormone is released in your brain when someone tells you that you belong to the group, while others do not. But how do we ensure that we can continue to work together for a better society—despite the fact that there are voices seeking to exploit our differences?

Find out the answer in today's episode.

Research:

Tajfel, Henri et al. (1971): The Minimal Group Paradigm

Marques, J. M., & Paez, D. (1994): The ‘Black Sheep Effect’: Social Categorization, Rejection of Ingroup Deviants, and Perception of Group Variability

Corbeel, B. (2023): How Does Ingroup Bias Affect Social Cohesion and Integration?

Allport, Gordon (1954): The Nature of Prejudice. Addison-Wesley.

Cast:

Lasse Rimmer, Sigge Winther, and Lars Hvidberg

Editorial team:

Linn Lüders, Silas Moody, Lars Hvidberg, Ida Torpe Thorhauge, Bjørk Hulten, Noa Jenkins, and Anton Jensen

Sound design:

Peter Sejersbøl

Produced by the INVI think tank – Institute for wicked , with support from the Carlsberg Foundation.

The election campaign is focused on losses: job losses due to the wealth tax, and the loss of Great Prayer Day. Conversely, there is very little focus on what we can actually gain from these two measures. And there is a very specific reason for this, one that could be harmful to our democracy.

In this episode of "Kompas til Valgets Psykologi," hosts Sigge Winther and Lars Hvidberg, along with comedian and people expert Lasse Rimmer, explore why we humans focus far more on what we stand to lose—rather than on what we stand to gain. And then we discuss how to design a political system that allows politicians to think visionarily and gives them the courage to change our society—despite the fact that those who are supposed to vote for them actually prefer the status quo out of fear of losing.

Research:

De Martino, Benedetto et al. (2010): “Amygdala damage eliminates monetary loss aversion.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), February 2010, Vol. 107 (8), pp. 3788–3792

Canessa, Nicola et al. (2017). “The Functional and Structural Neural Basis of Individual Differences in Loss Aversion.” The Journal of Neuroscience, September 2013, Vol. 33 (36), pp. 14307–14317

Kahneman, Daniel (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar , Straus and Giroux.