Student Name
Professor Name
Political Psychology
Date
Chris Mooney — The Republican Brain:
The Science of Why They Deny Science- and Reality.
Chris Mooney Gave a lecture on Match 2013. The lecture was about his new book called ” The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science- and Reality”. FreeThought Arizona sponsored the event which took place at DuVal auditorium. Chris Mooney is a political and science Journalist. The speech comes from the book “The Republican War on Science”. It is the best selling book in the New York Times.
In his speech, he points out that science has never stood to decide political issues that affect the US and the entire world. He explains how both scientists and the science itself has lowered their influence on the federal government. It all started when Richard Nixon had all his science advisors fired. He also shows how findings in both congress and white house are altered before getting reported to suit the agenda of the speaker. At times they are entirely ignored. He also points different issues such as climate change, sex education, cell research, environmental regulation, product safety, and many more are mispresented by the Bush administration.
Initially, Federal science agencies were independent bodies that neither Republican nor Democrat influence. To date, such agencies are full of political appointees who know little science and more of evangelical activists and industry lobbyists. He also points out that the phenomenon is not happening only in the era of the Bush administration, but it is more of a Republican.
Republicans are there to disagree and fight anything and almost everything approved and agreed upon by many experts. They continuously fight against the facts. For example, he points out when President Bush had no idea on how the country can detect and counter Tsunami before it attacks the country. In his response, he said that America was less vulnerable to Tsunami, and also he was not a Geologist to know more about the topic. It shows an excellent level of ignorance of nature.
They have a conservative dislike of health, environment, evolution, global warming, safety regulation, and many more. Chris Mooney also shows how government fuels the attacks on science by being unwilling to distinguish between legit research and pseudoscience that is ideologically driven. In his book, Chris also points out that both the Democrats and liberals are in deep denial, particularly on the limit of the reason and also how to effectively respond to Republican.
He uses the knowledge of science to explores brain scans, psychology experiments, and polls to show how conservatives are likely to believe more wrong than right, how democrats are likely to oppose new ideas while refusing to change their beliefs when faced with new facts that have evidence. He also points out that people should not mistake a lack of intelligence as the main reason why conservatives show hostility to science. The more learned, informed, and sophisticated conservatives are likely to get it wrong about science compared to their counterparts. It is evident by the current global warming denial.
The OCEAN Five-Factor Personality Assessment
According to Chris Mooney, the “Big Five” traits that affect someone’s personality include;
- Openness to Experience,
- Conscientiousness,
- Extroversion,
- Agreeableness,
- Neuroticism
He tied all those traits in an acronym called “OCEAN”. The Openness variable describes multicultural liberals within America and Beyond. According to Mooney, Openness is a personality that covers different aspects such as intellectual flexibility, creativity, and also the curiosity of enjoying arts.
Openness denotes risk-taking, experimental characteristics, and also the zeal of wanting to sample different varieties of things that affects daily life experiences. Those who are not open are known as conservatives. Conservatives, however, have a positive characteristic when conscientiousness is concerned. People with conscientiousness traits prioritizes orderliness and structured life. They like being punctual, sticking to a schedule, and also working hard. They are also goal-oriented, organized, and competent.
With experiments, Mooney tries to show how conservativeness can mislead people and convince them to believe what they want to rather than the truth. One of the findings demonstrated that the close-mindedness of the conservatives played a significant role. The best example is a survey on global warming. It is shown that most participants were factory incorrect and at the same time, closed-minded and overconfident. They did not want to inquire further about the topic.
Conclusion
In this video, Chris Mooney tries to give a more prosperous and robust framework to help people understand different issues and stakes involved. He sets an interrelated issue before us. The main aim of this speech is to try to show Americans and the whole world at large different ways to restore balance in the political system. He also leads the need to solve various political problems before they grow and become more complicated to the point of being above us.