Dispatches: Finding Equal Ground in Political Discourse
News and notes from Pacific Standard staff and contributors.
Political Discourse
The Case for Arguing Politics With Your Family at Thanksgiving
This Thanksgiving, skip the extra beer and take the higher ground in your family debate; chances are, your relatives will follow your example.
Is a Liberal Bias Hurting Social Psychology?
The importance of ideological diversity in academia.
Great Debate: Will Politicians Answer the Question?
American political campaigners are primed to deliver talking points regardless of the question they’ve actually been asked. Two professors offer tips for more on-target debates going forward.
Conservatives' Politics of Fear a Biological Response
Researchers looking at how we fixate on threats uncover more evidence of a biological component to the red-blue divide.
Tarring Opponents as Extremists Really Can Work
Political scientists have determined that labeling supporters of stands that otherwise might be unassailable can have a sleazy efficacy, although not everyone falls for tactic.
Reintroducing Paul Goodman, the 'Public Intellectual'
A new documentary film, "Paul Goodman Changed My Life," tells the at-times risqué story of the seminal public intellectual of the American left whose impact evaporated after his death in 1972.
#OWS: Have We Entered the Age of Protest?
Popular movements like Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party suggest that mass demonstrations have moved from the last resort of the powerless to the first resort of the newly empowered.
Mapping the (11) Divisions in American Society
Might it be that the traits and culture of the first nonnative colonizers in North America have left an indelible mark on the local society where they settled?
The Psychology of Political Stubbornness
A framework for what motivates rigidity among politicians helps explain the current debt ceiling debate and suggests how to resolve it.
Political Infamy Is Raising Money — For Both Sides
A new measurement using Google search terms creates an “infamy index” for politicians and finds that being infamous helps in fundraising.
E-mail Proves a Potent Way to Spread False Political Rumors
New research suggests e-mail is an all-too-effective way of spreading false political rumors.
‘Conservative’ Means Different Things to Different Conservatives
Voters self-identify as conservatives for several reasons, only one of which is that it reflects their politics
Is Political Talk Getting Smarter?
An analysis of 27 presidential debates finds a decline in the amount of abstract thought present during discussions of economics.