How hyper-partisanship has warped our brains

Beyond Politics

In the days after the violent, seditious attack on Congress on January 6, the American people were briefly aghast and outraged. But barely a week later, Republican voter identification with Trump had “rebounded to pre-election levels." Nowadays, even the most searing national events get sucked down a partisan rabbit hole…and last week, Republican leadership came out against any commission on looking into January 6. Our guest is an expert in political behavior and psychology and how we form political opinions. We talk about how much the age of hyper-partisanship has changed our understanding of events and reality itself. Alexander G. Theodoridis is an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he helps to direct the UMass poll, and his work has been featured by the New York Times, Washington Post, Scientific American, Time, CNN, The Hindu, The Economist and many other media outlets.