Politics on the Couch

In this episode host Rafael Behr talks to Dr Karen Stenner, the political psychologist & behavioral economist best known for long ago predicting the rise of Trump-like figures under the kinds of conditions we now confront. Her research on authoritarianism and 'Far Right' politics uses psychological theories and methods (in particular, Randomized Controlled Trials) to explain human behaviour.

She also use those same theories and methods (particularly RCTs) to shift human behaviour via communications and campaigns (of every kind), including designing and embedding messages that de-activate authoritarianism and diminish expressions of intolerance and racism in a society.

We also discuss the recent Labour victory in the Australian general election and the part that 'independent teals' played.

If you'd like to find out more about Dr Stenner and work please visit her site: https://www.karenstenner.com

And you may find her articles below of particular interest.

For Hope Not Hate on how to help authoritarians live in peace with liberal democracy.

https://hopenothate.org.uk/2020/11/01/authoritarianism

Her recent piece with Jessica Stern for Foreign Policy on how liberal democracy must treat authoritarianism as a chronic condition to be managed.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/11/capitol-insurrection-trump-authoritarianism-psychology-innate-fear-envy-change-diversity-populism/

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Rafael Behr talks to pollster and political strategist James Johnson about what's next for Labour, a matter of minutes after PM Johnson announced his resignation.

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This week, Rafael Behr and Professor Helen Thompson discuss her new book Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century.

The book, which was released on the day Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, recounts three histories—one about geopolitics, one about the world economy, and one about western democracies.

She explains how a confluence of different crises, building over many years, has created the current mood of global, epoch-defining disorder.

It shows how much of this turbulence originated in problems generated by fossil-fuel energies, and it explains why, as the green transition takes place, the longstanding predicaments energy invariably shapes will remain in place.

In light of her new book and the war raging in Ukraine, in this edition of Politics on the Couch Rafael and Helen discuss a wide-range of ideas and issues:

Topics discussed:

1. Was the Russian invasion of Ukraine an inflection point in history and how do we know if we're living through one?
2. Do individuals and charismatic personalities shape history or merely express longer-running trends and bigger forces?
3. Does Johnson have any ideology? If so, what is it?
4. Can the year we're born can shape our optimism about the future?
5. Has the pandemic affected the way citizens view making big sacrifices for a greater good?
6. How can strong political identities be forged from adversity?
7. Do Western liberal democracies have the capacity to drive through the change needed to make the green transition?
8. Is China as an authoritarian state at an advantage?
9. What lessons has the Ukrainian war taught us about energy policy and green transition?

• Helen's new book: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/disorder-hard-times-in-the-21st-century/9780198864981
• Helen's Cambridge University page: https://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/Staff_and_Students/dr-helen-thompson

Politics on the Couch has been chosen by Feedspot as one of the Top 25 UK Psychology Podcasts and Top 25 Political Science Podcasts on the web.

https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_psychology_podcasts

https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts

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Human beings routinely make terrible choices but humanity still achieves amazing things.

How does this paradox work?

And is it still working when technology seems to amplify the worst in us.

In this episode, Politics on the Couch host Rafael Behr talks to Professor Steven Pinker about the constant struggle between evidence and emotion for control of the political agenda; whether truth and fact are winning the long war against superstition and falsehood, and why rationality always has the last word.

Professor Steven Pinker is Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and the author of a number of highly acclaimed and prize-winning books about psychology, cognitive science, linguistics and history.

His latest book Rationality: What it is; why it seems scarce; why it matters was published in September.

https://stevenpinker.com/publications/rationality-what-it-why-it-seems-so-scarce-and-why-it-matters

More about Steven Pinker:

https://stevenpinker.com/biocv

Other books by Steven Pinker mentioned in episode

The Better Angels of our Nature

https://stevenpinker.com/publications/better-angels-our-nature

Enlightenment Now https://stevenpinker.com/publications/enlightenment-now-case-reason-science-humanism-and-progress

A couple of references in this episode that might be useful as further reading.

Michael Ignatieff’s book Fire and Ashes, about a failed career in politics

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/27/michael-ignatieff-fire-ashes-review

Jonathan Rauch’s book The Constitution of Knowledge, about the crisis of trust in institutions

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/26/the-constitution-of-knowledge-review-jonathan-rauch-trump

Politics on the Couch has been chosen by Feedspot as one of the Top 25 UK Psychology Podcasts and Top 25 Political Science Podcasts on the web.

https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_psychology_podcasts

https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts

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In this episode Rafael Behr talks to Cambridge University political psychologist Dr Lee de-Wit about the problem with progressive arguments over patriotism, and Labour's constant struggle to connect with socially conservative voters.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Dr Lee de-Wit's Cambridge University homepage

https://www.psychol.cam.ac.uk/people/lee-de-wit

Arnold Kling's book

https://cdn.cato.org/libertarianismdotorg/books/ThreeLanguagesOfPolitics.pdf

Haidt and Moral Foundations Theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_foundations_theory

Tariq Modood's site

http://www.tariqmodood.com

YouGov poll on immigration

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2019/09/13/what-policy-do-british-voters-want-on-eu-immigration-is-there-a-hidden-consensus/

Dr Lee de-Wit's book

http://eandtbooks.com/books/whats-your-bias/

Dr Lee de-Wit's recent article in the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/11/politics-left-right-tories-advantage-labour

Politics on the Couch has just been selected by Feedspot as one of the Top 25 UK Psychology Podcasts on the web.

This is the most comprehensive list of Top 25 UK Psychology Podcasts on the internet and we're honored to have been selected!

https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_psychology_podcasts

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

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"Britain's vast colonial project, amassed over centuries and covering a quarter of the world at its height, is unavoidable in any discussion of race and identity in modern Britain."

Our host Rafael Behr talks to Sathnam Sanghera about his latest book - Empireland - that delves into our imperial legacy, how it shapes our nation, our culture and defines so much of our politics to this day.

Sathnam has won multiple awards for his journalism in the Financial Times and the Times. His 2009 memoir, The Boy with the Topknot, was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award, as was his 2014 novel, Marriage Material.

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In this political psychology podcast, Rafael Behr talks to cognitive scientist of Political Violence, Nafees Hamid, about what makes extremists tick and how to change their minds.

Nafees discusses the conditions that push people towards extremist ideologies and whether a martyr's mind is wired differently to the rest of us.

Along the way, Rafael and Nafees explore identity, sacred values, devoted actors, and how extremists can be walked back from acts of violence.

Nafees Hamid is a Fellow at ARTIS International (https://artisinternational.org) and an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (https://icct.nl) in The Hague.

His research focuses on the psychology of radicalisation and social fragmentation in Western countries.

His methods include ethnographic interviews, survey studies, social network analysis, and psychology and neuroscience experiments with mostly Western members of extremist organisations, their friends and family, supporters of such networks, and the general communities from where they originate.

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

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Rafael Behr talks to Matt d'Ancona about his new book: 'Identity, Ignorance, Innovation: Why the Old Politics is Useless - and what to do about it.'

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Identity-Ignorance-Innovation-by-Matthew-DAncona-author/9781529303995

They discuss why the 'liberal left' needs to adapt to a new politics that is being shaped much more by digital networks and identity politics than the older institutional forces.

Matt joined The Sunday Telegraph in 1996 as deputy comment editor and columnist, before becoming deputy editor. He wrote a weekly political column in The Sunday Telegraph for a decade.

He succeeded Boris Johnson as editor of The Spectator.

In January 2015, d'Ancona joined The Guardian as a weekly columnist.

He left the paper in 2019 to become an editor and partner at https://www.tortoisemedia.com

He also writes columns for the Evening Standard, GQ and The New York Times.

He is chairman of the liberal Conservative think tank, Bright Blue, a trustee of the Science Museum and a Visiting Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London.

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Rafael Behr talks to neuroscientist and author Tali Sharot about the optimism hard-wired into our thought processes, how it affects the way we look at the world – and what it means for politics.

The conversation also covers the relationship between emotion and reason, how we should respect some of the more primitive parts of our brains, what messages work best to encourage people to act on climate change, and what connects sourdough and the hunt for a coronavirus vaccine.

Tali Sharot is a professor at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, where she is Director of the Affective Brain Lab, and Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/research/experimental-psychology/person/dr-tali-sharot/Sheis

the author of The Optimism Bias:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Optimism-Bias-were-wired-bright/dp/1780332637

and The Influential Mind:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Influential-Mind-Reveals-Change-Others/dp/0349140634/

This podcast is hosted by wwww.zencast.fm

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Rafael Behr talks to author and comedian David Baddiel about his book “Jews Don't Count” – a closely argued polemic about the failure of progressive-left politics to treat antisemitism with the same moral rigour as is applied to other kinds of racism.

The frank and at times raw conversation deals with the social and cultural dimensions of one of history's oldest prejudices, as well as the individual emotional and psychological components of a secular Jewish identity. They also talk a little bit about football.

David Baddiel's book is published by TLS Books

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/jews-dont-count-david-baddiel-tls-books-extract/

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