Since I am more a poet, not a researcher, I have not done a survey of the studies.
But given the facts that our brains, according to all the limited evidence I have inflicted on myself like a workout routine, have evolved to be quick and reactionary, more risk averse than reward attracted for the same evidence, same contexts, primed verbally one way or the other, we make moral judgments and perceived moral decisions faster than we make non-moral or neutral evaluations.
So far, no departure or extrapolation from what experts say.
How does this affect our behavior on social media and in our lives?
We make snap decisions more quickly and with less deliberation and cognitive weighing of evidence on matters threatening our identity, because those matters we feel and think of as being moral, as well as threatening.
Also, we make exceptions in these same matters for ourselves, and for those in our in-group US, more readily, and in contradiction with, our strict, right-wrong, no exceptions for out-groups Them.
These things happen because the actual connections in our brains are enhanced. They are stronger in terms of connections, synapses and other physical connections such as increased receptors, and also because of either increased or reduced levels of promoters or of inhibitors, all of the above, among other factors inside and out, what have you.
This is not merely a matter of mind, but a matter of the material structures in our brains and also the chemical responsiveness of our brains changing, becoming attuned to our perception of the world as a scary or happy place.
Our post-hoc rationalizing of our decisions also increase in their viciousness in proportion to how outraged we are, naturally. Our rhetoric and expressed desire for retribution, the extremes of emotion and call to action are likewise elevated.
Further, the speed of reaction and resort to comfortable extremism is in direct proportion to our levels of anxiety and fear about a particular matter. It acts as a trigger both directly and indirectly.
That is, if the matter is either immigration (direct) or financial insecurity in connection with immigrants (indirect), the speed of our reaction about action and the extremity of the action we conclude must be taken are in direct proportion to the depth of our fear and ambient anxiety, both directly associated with those matters and also in general (e.g., getting older without a caring, supportive community).
Similarly, those prone to conspiracy or other crazy thinking, such as MAGA folks engage in, more quickly make reference to concepts (e.g., Deep State power) and other things closer to what’s eating them emotionally (e.g., anything political) in contexts that have no practical connection with those, such as how are we going to deal with this sales quote for piano lessons.
The way our brains have evolved to make quick decisions in the face of what present in (my favorite) the Free Energy Principle and dopaminergic incentives for identifying salience, result in these often unfortunate outcomes in our modern world.
In our current state of comparative security for us as individual survival machines and for humans as a species, our brains have not had time to evolve beyond the previous, more constant conditions.
Which may be too simplistic. We still need fast reactionary behavior to survive in plenty of situations. What we don’t need is those in many social contexts which require more deliberative discussions and less knee-jerk action.
Our challenges are, of course, not aided by those who seek to exploit these conditions, such as commercial entities and individuals, political demagogues and ideological movements, and exacerbate the problems.
I am still trying to figure out what the actual motivation of demagogues could be. Or commercial advertisers. Anyone who wants to make these challenges harder for anyone else.
I find it difficult to accept that they are stupid enough to believe there is an advantage to taking of advantage of others.
I guess I am the stupid one. Of course, sure, “self-interest,” right?
Which means what exactly? From what cultural and evolutionary origins?
Up next, if I can remember where I parked.
I Dwell In Possibility 