Last week I received a phone call. Someone from Stand Up KC was calling.

Are you interested in participating in an act of civil disobedience — the peaceful violation of the law ending with a voluntary arrest — with about 100 other people in Kansas City and thousands across the country?

The words of two men flashed through my mind. One man was a black writer and abolitionist of the Civil War era, Frederick Douglass: “If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters… Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

The other was a white historian from the time of the great civil rights and anti-Vietnam movements, Howard Zinn: “Civil disobedience…is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience… Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity and war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country.”

Civil disobedience.

This tactic has long been used by ordinary people — from the Revolutionary War to the civil rights struggle, from Vietnam to today’s battle against poverty — to get what they demand from the powerful, whether the State or corporations.

What did Stand Up KC demand? A living wage for all workers in all occupations.

I believe that no matter what occupation you find yourself in — by choice or circumstance — you should not have to live in poverty. You should not have pennies left over after paying for rent, groceries, and gas. You should not have to decide between paying the electric bill or paying the water bill. Not in the richest nation in the history of humanity. Not even if your work is flipping burgers. I trust the economic studies and historical research that make it exceptionally plain raising the minimum wage does not lead to higher unemployment (often it’s the opposite) and only raises the costs of goods and services by a couple percentage points, easily offset by higher wages. I understand how the cycle of poverty functions, ensuring the children of poor parents typically become poor adults due to limited opportunities compared to middle-income and wealthy people.

“Yes, I am.”

We trained. We met at a small church for instruction in the art of civil disobedience. Ignore police orders to leave. But when they come to handcuff you, comply. Don’t resist. You will be taken into custody, perhaps for minutes, perhaps hours, perhaps overnight. We have three lawyers ready to represent you. Bond money has already been raised. Charges could be equivalent to jaywalking…or trespassing. We will work to get any charges tossed out.

I asked if there would be official observers filming the arrests. I didn’t want anyone to be falsely accused of resistance or violence. Yes, there would be observers.

On Tuesday, November 29, 2016, hundreds of Kansas Citians, many abandoning their workplaces and going on strike, gathered at 63rd and Paseo at 5 p.m., as the light began to fade.

I parked my car in a neighborhood, and left my wallet and phone behind. We were told to carry only our driver’s license, which I kept in my front pocket.

Weaving through the crowd, I found the check-in table. I gave the woman my name. I wrote my name and phone number on a bag, put my keys inside it, and gave it to her. I pulled up the sleeve of my coat, took a permanent marker from a box, and scribbled a lawyer’s number on my skin, as instructed. The woman tied a yellow band around my arm — distinguishing protesters participating in civil disobedience.

I made small talk with a few people I knew. Watched people hand out American flags, hats and gloves, and pizza. Noticed the lawyers getting into position.

Then the speeches began at a podium. Men, women, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, black, white, and Latina speakers. We do not make enough to provide our children with comfortable lives. People have to work multiple jobs. And the new administration…attacks on the poor are already underway. Medicare, Social Security. Will nativism and bigotry divide the working class? United we stand, divided we fall. An injury to one is an injury to all.

Horns from passing cars blared in solidarity. Fists rose through lowered car windows. I and others raised our fists back.

But wait, what was that? Someone screaming from a pickup truck as it passed. Unintelligible from my spot, but it hardly sounded friendly.

Moments later, shouting from the back of the crowd. The speaker, a rabbi, ignored it and pressed on at the microphone, but the crowd was not so easily distracted.

“Get better jobs! Get better jobs! Get better jobs!”

A middle-aged white man walked forward along the edge of the crowd, screaming. He was not pleased with this gathering of low-wage fast food and retail workers.

“Why don’t you go fuck yourself?” someone from our gathering said. Others admonished him.

Folks on the edge of the crowd blocked the man from entering the area, and eventually the man’s voice trailed off and he disappeared.

Get better jobs, I mused. What luck this man arrived to bestow this wisdom. Christ. Why not just shout, “Don’t be poor! Don’t be poor!”

The final speaker ordered those getting arrested to the front of the crowd, so I pressed forward. The rest of the gathering clapped for us. Then the march began, down the sidewalk — toward a McDonald’s. Signs and fists were raised. Chants sounded in the darkness.

What do we want? / Fifteen and a union! When do we want it? / Now!

Everywhere we go / People want to know… Who we are / So we tell ’em… We are the workers / The mighty, mighty workers… Fighting for Fifteen / And good jobs for all…

I saw the first police car after we’d been walking for 10 minutes or so. He was just driving alongside us. We reached the McDonald’s down the street after a quick 20 minute march.

We followed our organizer into the street, and he lowered his hands. Over 100 of us sat down on the road, locked arms, and started to sing. The rest of the protesters remained on the sidewalk behind us.

The Kansas City and Jackson County police materialized from all directions. Five or so officers on horseback. Another fifteen or twenty on foot. One or two with gas masks. One with a shotgun. Cruisers were positioned to keep traffic away. Most officers wore serious expressions, but a few looked amused, some friendly, others angry.

The media appeared next. Cameras rolling and flashing. KCUR, the Star, the local TV news channels.

After a police announcement (something about how if we didn’t return to the sidewalk we’d be arrested) was drowned out by song and chant, officers began cuffing protesters, with disposable bonds. With so many people, it was a long process. We just continued to chant, even — especially — those getting arrested.

“If you don’t get out of the street, you’re going to jail.” It was my turn.

I nodded and remained seated.

“OK,” the officer said, and helped me up. He was a friendly man. He cuffed me and we walked across the street to where the other arrested folk were being loaded into police vans. “Thanks for your cooperation,” the officer said, and left to arrest someone else.

“What’s your name?” a man in a suit called to me. One of our lawyers! I told him.

The protesters on the sidewalk and those arrested chanted in call-and-response fashion from the two sides of the street.

Stand up / KC!

Stand up / KC!

I was helped into a van with eight others — black, white, Asian, male, female. Things were festive, the adrenaline rushing. An officer took us on a drive of only a few minutes, to a nearby station, but we didn’t end up going inside. Everyone would be identified outside and then taken to different jails for processing.

We sat in the van for perhaps three-quarters of an hour. We sang hip-hop and pop songs. Somebody come get her, she’s dancing like a stripper… A man and I talked about the Walking Dead for a few minutes. A few folks wiggled out of their cuffs. A guy next to me was hot, so I helped him by biting his hood and pulling it off his head. A blonde girl had to use the bathroom badly; we had to warn her against going in the van. Could it be another charge? Destruction of police property? I had made sure not to drink much a few hours before the march, in hopes of not having to ask a policeman to use a bathroom; this mission was successful, but I was very dehydrated by the end of the night.

We were taken out of the vehicle and joined other protesters from other vans. We spent another hour outside, as we were identified person-by-person. We talked amongst ourselves and with the police, who were polite and amiable. Stand Up KC had communicated what would occur in advance so the police could be prepared — and perhaps that lightened the mood. “This guy’s got some pipes,” the officer from our van said, pointing to the most enthusiastic singer from our group. This officer was part of a K9 unit, so we asked him about his dog.

It was a cold night. We huddled together for warmth, a fine way to meet new people. My arms were in pain from being restrained behind my back, but fortunately the officers cut our bonds and redid them in front. The girl urinated on the ground at the back of our group; somehow she went unnoticed by basically everyone.

Eventually I was searched (not the first time, nor the last), identified, and sat in a new van, with the heat blasting, for a while. A protester and police officer, both formerly from Chicago, recognized each other. “You used to be a cop?” another woman asked the protester. “I’m a mechanic, I used to work on the cop cars.”

Then the men and women were separated. I was taken to a paddy wagon with seven other men, three white and four black. A reverend. A Ford worker. A Burger King employee. They would be my fellow prisoners.

Our new officer explained to us that the downtown station and nearby stations were full, so we were going up to the Shoal Creek facility near Liberty. The mood was still jovial. The reverend, a union organizer, and I discussed politics for a while. A couple guys in the car had been to jail before, and told us their experiences. After a fifteen or twenty minute drive, I was beginning to feel carsick, and worried for a moment I might throw up inside this hot, cramped, jostling box.

“Can we play some tunes?” one of my fellows asked the officer.

“No, I wish!”

We were taken into the station and waited to be booked. We chatted with our officer about firearms, martial arts, Missouri and Kansas laws, and so on. He said officers were really feeling like targets these days; the black men with me said they knew how he felt. We talked about Stand Up KC and the Fight for $15. “I totally understand that,” the officer said when we told him workers weren’t making enough to provide for their families and how historically civil disobedience helps push change forward. “But a lot of us had to be called out to take you in, and there was a shooting tonight.”

I wondered then if those who believed civil disobedience wasn’t worth the risk — distracting the police or delaying ambulances or fire trucks — were also the fiercest critics of the World Series victory parade and similar events.

He was a kind man, but wasn’t supportive of the movement. He explained he used to work for low wages, but worked his way to a bigger paycheck. The implication was unstated but clear: Why weren’t we doing the same? Why weren’t we willing to work hard? Too lazy? Too misguided? Too foolish? Get a better job!

Also: “I work a dangerous job, other types of work are much safer,” he told us, dismissive of higher wages for retail, childcare, and fast food workers.

Apparently it’s only dangerous work that deserves a decent wage, I thought. The millionaire CEOs won’t be happy to hear this.

A couple of the officers at Shoal Creek were frustrated, both at us protesters and some internal disorganization. Though Stand Up KC told the KCPD how many people would need to be arrested, they did not seem entirely prepared. A few griped about how higher-ups had decided to handle the protests. “But hey, we’re here to serve!” one said loudly, in our direction. It is likely the higher-ups wanted the whole process to take a while, to discourage future civil disobedience.

I was the last of us eight to be booked, and got stuck sitting next to a drunk the police dragged in after a domestic violence call. My comrades were safe in the cell, and I longed to join them. The man, white and near 60, droned on and on about how “protests won’t do anything,” how “all you’re doing is disrupting the crack flow in the inner city,” how Communism is evil, how “we just gotta give Trump a chance,” how Somalis are foolish because they choose to drive taxis instead of finding better work, how people need to work hard like him and get off welfare, how the people in Africa are poor “because they’re just so stupid,” and how if I ever start a business I should take on one of my black comrades in the cell as a partner because “he looks like he could use a helping hand, if you know what I mean.”

Countering his drunken, racist word vomit was difficult and tiresome. I was relieved when it was my turn for a mug shot, fingerprinting, and at last imprisonment in the cell with my partners in crime. Back to chatting and telling stories.

We were at the station for three hours, and were slowly processed and released on bond. We were charged with failing to obey a lawful order.

When we were freed, the lawyer I had spoken to earlier was waiting outside for us. We tried to nap in a Stand Up KC van while a group of women, who had also been sent to this station due to overflow elsewhere, were also freed. (At one point the window of our cell was covered up and the male police officers shooed away so female officers could remove the hijab of a Muslim woman protester for a search and mug shot.) Eventually, we drove back to the church where we trained, got our keys and other items, and from there rode back to our homes or parked cars. I was home by 4 a.m. — it was an 11-hour experience.

As I prepared for rest, I thought of what one of my companions had asked: “You think we made a difference?”

Civil disobedience can do many things. It can make potential allies realize they are not alone, swelling the ranks of a cause. It can show opponents that such a cause, to those who care about it, is worth being arrested or jailed for — and maybe, just maybe, this will change the way some people think. Most importantly, it can make an employer or the State realize trouble won’t stop until demands are met, and therefore can push policy change through faster. Since the Fight for $15 troublemakers began protesting just four years ago, nearly 20 million workers have won raises in places like California, New York, and Massachusetts. It pushed the Kansas City council to support a higher minimum wage. “Protests won’t do anything” indeed.

To the officer, the drunk, and the counter-protester, civil disobedience like this might not make much sense. But that cannot be the case for long. For while these things start small, as they grow they become more easy to grasp. When 100 turns into 1,000, it is easier to see. When it grows to 5,000 or 10,000, it’s clearer still. The truth is, if enough ordinary people unite and organize, they can do more than shut down a street. They can shut down a city, a state, or an entire nation. From Kansas City’s Valentine’s Day strike of 1918, in which 15,000 workers brought the city to a halt, to India’s 2016 strike of 180 million workers that froze a country, the people have the power to take whatever they want — by leaving their workplaces and flooding the streets. We the people can plow up the earth, we will be the flash of lightning and clap of thunder, we will be the mighty roar of the ocean.

We part with the words of the great black poet Langston Hughes:

You could stop the
factory whistle blowing,
Stop the mine machinery
from going,
Stop the atom bombs
exploding,
Stop the battleships
from loading,
Stop the merchant
ships from sailing,
Stop the jail house keys
from turning
…You could
If you would

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Simply put, when you cast your ballot for Donald Trump, you decided his attacks on your neighbors were not vicious or vulgar enough to disqualify him.

This decision was made in the light of other factors. You had other priorities. You opposed Hillary Clinton’s deception and corruption. Perhaps you wanted to shock and dismantle the establishment — the media, corporate, and political elites. Likely you were concerned with restoring Republican power, particularly over the Supreme Court, and advancing conservative policies like curtailing abortion rights and protecting the all-important Second Amendment. You perhaps thought Trump, as a businessman, could offer economic policies that would benefit you.

Whatever your reasons, you prioritized. You weighed factors such as these against the things Trump said about your neighbors and the things he promised to do to them. And such factors were more important to you.

Now, don’t get me wrong, many bigots voted for Trump. For example, polls show 38% of Trump supporters think minorities have “too much influence” in the U.S., 40% believe blacks are lazier than whites, and so on. But you do not think that way. This article is for you, not for them.

You simply did not care enough to put the people Trump threatened and degraded before the other factors important to you.

You didn’t care enough about women to reject Trump when he called women ugly and fat, when he bragged about being able to grab women’s vaginas because he was a celebrity. The rape cases against him were surely nothing but rumors.

You were too insensitive toward Muslims to not vote for Trump when he said mosques should be monitored, Muslims should be registered in a database or made to wear special identification, and no more Muslims should be allowed to enter the land of the free.

You didn’t care enough about African Americans to abandon Trump when he retweeted white supremacists lying about blacks being the main killers of whites, perpetuating stereotypes of the violent, criminal black man, called for the return of harsh, discriminatory police policies like stop-and-frisk, or refused to rent to blacks. You didn’t care enough that he delayed in denouncing KKK support or had an open white supremacist like Stephen Bannon running his campaign.

You didn’t care enough about the children of undocumented immigrants, whose mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, will be arrested, throw into trucks, and taken away forever if Trump’s deportation plan comes to pass. You didn’t care enough about Trump stereotyping the people escaping bloody wars and extreme poverty in Central and South America as rapists, drug dealers, and job thieves.

You didn’t care enough about the disabled when he heartlessly mocked a disabled reporter or had a protester in a wheelchair removed from his rally.

You didn’t care enough about veterans when Trump said a P.O.W. wasn’t a war hero.

You certainly didn’t care enough about homosexuals to not vote for Trump when he said a conservative Supreme Court could toss out the gay marriage decision.

Whether Trump intends to carry out his threats, whether he believes what he says or was using such rhetoric as a political strategy to appeal to the conservative base, is irrelevant. Regardless of motive, people who speak of authoritarianism and use demagoguery must be opposed.

This is not only directed at conservative straight white men, but rather every single person who cast a ballot for Trump. The 58% of white voters, 8% of black voters, 29% of Latino voters. The 10% of liberals, 41% of moderates, 81% of conservatives. The 14% of LGBT voters. The 58% of Christians. The 53% of women.

Perhaps you’re an African American who didn’t care enough about Muslim rights. Perhaps you’re liberal who didn’t care enough about respect for women. Regardless, you prioritized. You voted against many of your own interests. You’re a Muslim who has helped bring to power a man vowing to strip you of your civil liberties. Or an LGBT American who may have set in motion the undoing of much progress. You put other considerations, other interests, ahead of the respect and civil rights you deserve as a human being and citizen of the United States — and which your neighbors deserve, as well.

Sadly, people voting against their own interests is nothing new in American politics. Look to the conservative whose family could immensely benefit from higher taxes on the rich strengthening social programs like Social Security or covering the cost of college for anyone who wishes to attend, but takes a valiant stand against it. Voting against one’s own well-being is an act too many people on both Right and Left seem eager to partake in, and it is as disheartening as it is amazing.

That a cis straight white man is telling minority people what’s in their best interests will evoke no apology here. One cannot denounce whites and conservatives for accepting and enabling an assault on certain groups’ rights and basic human dignity — plus the emboldening of the most vile of people, who celebrated Trump’s triumph by grabbing women by the vagina, ripping hijabs off Muslim girls’ heads, screaming “nigger!” at blacks, mocking Hispanics, beating homosexuals, and a slew of other hate crimes — without likewise denouncing the liberals, women, and minorities who also participated in this American tragedy.

We have to hold all people, and ourselves, to the same standards, whether it’s criticizing folks on the Right and Left who were apologists for Trump’s policies and slander or condemning both citizen violence against the people Trump threatened and against Trump supporters.

That’s what empathy entails. You hold others to the same standards you hold for yourself. You want the same rights and treatment for others you want for yourself. Trump’s victory was fueled by many factors — hatred for the establishment (the ruling class) and corrupt politicians, economic uncertainty and strife, advancement of conservative ideals and policy, bigotry and xenophobia, and so on — but in the end a lack of empathy on the Right, and to an extent elsewhere, may be the most serious problem.

Too many are simply unable to empathize with others, extending to them the way of life and respect they desire for themselves and their children. Too many support or tolerate cruel policies because they will not personally be affected. So a politician suggests monitoring mosques and registering Muslims — why not vote for him, I am not a Muslim. A politician perpetuates stereotypes of brown immigrants and black men — why not vote for him, I am not a brown immigrant or black man. And on and on. People are looking out for themselves, caught up in a society that celebrates individualism instead of solidarity with others. We are selfish, callous to the plight of citizens of different races, religions, sexual orientations, and so on. Truly, this election renounced empathy.

You and tens of millions of others simply did not care enough about the people Trump threatened to not vote for him. Others, less guilty, were so apathetic they didn’t even vote, or voted third party in swing states.

Had we loved our neighbors, had we treated others the way we want to be treated — and rejected politicians who refused to do the same — Donald Trump would have failed. Miserably.

Perhaps your conscience is clear, your trust in your priorities unshaken, the outcome of all this satisfactory.

The rest of us mourn the death of American empathy.

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Whether we believe the foundations of morality come from a deity or from the natural processes of evolution, surely liberals and conservatives, religious persons and atheists, can agree that, given the broad array of religious, political, and ethical beliefs across time and cultures, human values are changeable and varied, constructed by those who came before you and largely determined by the home and society into which you were born.

Your society, and your place in it, will decide how you think and feel about everything. Morality is affected by many factors: geography, resources and wealth, political systems, class structure, religion, education and literacy, scientific progress, individual observation and experience, economics, and so on, all unique in a complex society. No one denies someone born in a Muslim home (or nation) is likely to be Muslim, one born in a liberal home (or nation) likely to be liberal, one born in a polygamist home (or nation) likely to have different thoughts on polygamy than someone without that experience, and so on. As uncomfortable as this may be, particularly to deeply religious people like Christians, we are largely products of our environment.

But these factors can change, and so can moral values. As a former religious conservative and current liberal atheist, I understand how new ideas can over time drastically alter your way of thinking. Two intriguing questions are: Can thought processes or brain structure beyond your control contribute to your political beliefs? and How does political thinking change?

What We Think: Different Moral Foundations

First, we should look at the areas of morality conservatives and liberals say they care about. Jonathon Haidt and Craig Joseph, building off prior research, propose five foundations of morality, explored in Haidt’s popular TED Talk:

• Harm/care: As Haidt says, “We’re all mammals here, we all have a lot of neural and hormonal programming that makes us really bond with others, care for others, feel compassion for others, especially the weak and vulnerable. It gives us very strong feelings about those who cause harm.”
• Fairness/reciprocity: A willingness to exchange things for mutual benefit, whether something physical like a trade in goods or something nonphysical like kindness — expecting the same in return. This is the “foundation of so many religions.”
• In-group mentality/loyalty: The drive to join together into groups and remain loyal to your group, such as your nation, state, city, or sports team.
• Authority/respect: Awarding reverence, sometimes due to love, to others and being willing to follow their directives.
• Purity/sanctity: The desire to achieve virtue by being selective of what you put into or do with your body.

Looking at responses from 23,000 Americans to questions related to these five foundations, Haidt and his colleagues discovered that liberals based their morality directly on harm/care and fairness/reciprocity. They cared about these foundations slightly more than conservatives, and cared far less for in-group/loyalty, authority/respect, or purity/sanctity. Conservatives, comparatively, put a great emphasis on these final three foundations, but still had harm/care and fairness/reciprocity toward the top of their concerns:

via Patheos

I imagine such a result makes those on the Right and Left equally proud. Conservatives may think themselves more loyal to their country, trust in government authority when the State insists war or mass surveillance are needed to keep us safe, or tend to think that homosexuality or sex outside marriage is wrong. Liberals might say human beings are far more important than artificial manmade creations like countries, may question State warnings of imminent danger given a history of government dishonesty, or see no “impurity” in something as biologically natural as sex or indeed homosexuality.

Considering the standard definitions of “liberal” and “conservative,” Haidt’s results make sense. The definition of a liberal is someone who is more open to new ways of doing things, new ways of thinking, and willing to forsake tradition. The definition of a conservative is someone who prefers to preserve tradition and traditional values, someone more closed to or cautious of change. (There are of course broader definitions; for example, one might include the conservative emphasis on personal responsibility or small government [that is, when it comes to taxes or economic regulations, not issues like abortion, drug, or marriage rights]. Yet those things are not exclusive to conservatism. Anarchism, for example, is a radical leftist ideology that calls for no State at all.)

Looking at Haidt’s results, an ideology that aims to preserve traditional values would in theory need, for example, deep loyalty and respect for the State or the Church or parents and their ways of doing things. Haidt says, “Conservatives…speak for institutions and traditions. They want order, even at some cost to those at the bottom. The great conservative insight is that order is really hard to achieve. It’s really precious, and it’s really easy to lose.”

Likewise, an ideology that is open to new ideas and radical change would need to dismiss authority and focus on bold new ways to improve the human condition. “Liberals reject three of these foundations. They say ‘No, let’s celebrate diversity, not common in-group membership.’ They say, ‘Let’s question authority.’ And they say, ‘Keep your laws off my body.’ Liberals have very noble motives for doing this. Traditional authority, traditional morality can be quite repressive, and restrictive to those at the bottom, to women, to people that don’t fit in. So liberals speak for the weak and oppressed. They want change and justice, even at the risk of chaos.”

Haidt concludes, “Liberals and conservatives both have something to contribute, [as] they form a balance on change versus stability.”

Fair enough, liberals and conservatives emphasize different moral values. But can we go deeper? Are there differences in cognitive styles or physiology that might explain why?

Why We Think How We Do: Different Cognitive Processes

Our cognitive processes determine who we are. As neuroscientist Sam Harris writes, political conservatism is

correlated with dogmatism, inflexibility, death anxiety, need for closure, and anticorrelated with openness to experience, cognitive complexity, self-esteem, and social stability. Even the manipulation of a single of these variables can affect political opinions and behavior. For instance, merely reminding people of the fact of death increases their inclination to punish transgressors and to reward those who uphold cultural norms. One experiment showed that judges could be led to impose especially harsh penalties on prostitutes if they were simply prompted to think about death prior to their deliberations.

“Cognitive complexity” deserves attention. One important difference between liberals and conservatives may be abstract reasoning abilities. As defined by Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, abstract thinking is

the final, most complex stage in the development of cognitive thinking, in which thought is characterized by adaptability, flexibility, and the use of concepts and generalizations. Problem solving is accomplished by drawing logical conclusions from a set of observations, for example, making hypotheses and testing them. This type of thinking is developed by 12 to 15 years of age, usually after some degree of education.

Abstract reasoning comes in handy when one needs to

understand subjects on a complex level through analysis and evaluation and the ability to apply knowledge in problem-solving by using theory, metaphor or complex analogy.

Abstract thinkers are better at transferring knowledge learned from one context to another, better at seeing relationships or understanding analogies between very different things.

Less complex stages of thought like syncretic (2-7 years old) and concrete reasoning (7-11 years old) are characterized by basing thought on personal experiences and perceiving the world without bothering to generalize and categorize (a child sees a bike and a car as both useful, understanding their functionality, but may not think about transportation itself, a more abstract idea, one that is not representative of a physical object). There is less transferring of knowledge to new contexts, less recognition of relationships, less flexibility, less adaptability.

Fortunately, abstraction is a

relative concept, related to the age of the child. For a two year old, “the day after tomorrow” is a highly abstract concept. For a college student, the day after tomorrow is relatively concrete, as opposed to highly abstract ideas like Heisenberg’s Indeterminancy Principle. And of course there are many degrees of abstraction between these two extremes. A major component of intellectual development is this process of gradually moving from extremely concrete thinking to increasingly abstract thinking in an ever increasing array of content areas.

In a 2015 study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, liberals and conservatives were given a triad test. Participants were asked to look at three items and decide which two were more closely related; for example, a panda, a monkey, and a banana.

Liberals tended to group objects by their abstract category, putting the panda and the monkey together, as they are both animals. “Animals” is not one physical (concrete) thing, it is a non-physical idea or generalization. Conservatives tended to group together items by their use, their “functional relation,” for example putting the monkey and the banana together. Conservatives employed a method of thinking that focused on concrete objects and their functionality. Do not think this somehow means conservatives simply think like children or have failed to advanced past an adolescent way of thinking; sheer nonsense — conservatives understand perfectly what concepts like animals or transportation mean. What this indicates is there may be something about being liberal that makes one more easily or automatically engage in abstract thinking — or that engaging in abstract thinking may tend to lead to liberalism.

To see which might be the case, the researchers then tried a different experiment. They told one group of random participants to organize the triad by concept, the other group to organize by relationship — that is, use in the real world. The researchers then gave both groups an article that compared

two contrasting welfare programs — a generous, liberal one and a stricter, conservative one — and “vote” for a plan. Those in the categorical group chose the liberal plan significantly more often than those in the relational group, suggesting that changing thought style can alter political views.

Remember, these were not two groups where one was intentionally liberal, the other conservative; they were randomized. So this bears repeating: changing thought styles may alter political views. Asking people to think in more complex ways, a more abstract way, primed them to liberalism.

Other studies also indicate a relationship between conservatism and lower abstract reasoning, showing how the latter correlates with conservative ideas such as disgust toward homosexuality.

A 2010 study found that participants with the lowest abstract reasoning skills tended to hold the most anti-gay prejudice. Rightwing authoritarianism and limited contact with gay people were the two best correlates with anti-gay prejudice, followed by lower abstract thinking skills and then sex of the respondent (men tend to be more homophobic than women). While low abstract reasoning was not the strongest predictor of anti-gay thought, it was found that this factor had a negative correlation with rightwing authoritarianism — that is, the most conservative participants tended to have the lowest abstract reasoning skills.

A 2012 study published in Psychological Science had similar findings:

[An] analysis of a U.S. data set confirmed a predictive effect of poor abstract-reasoning skills on antihomosexual prejudice, a relation partially mediated [brought about] by both authoritarianism and low levels of intergroup contact… Our results suggest that cognitive abilities play a critical, albeit underappreciated, role in prejudice.

They also found lower I.Q. in childhood correlated with greater racism in adulthood, “largely mediated by conservative ideology,” as “all analyses controlled for education and socioeconomic status.” (Note that I.Q. is not an accurate or holistic measure of intelligence — like most tests, poor children tend to do worse than wealthy kids, due to environment — but it is a measure of progress in reasoning and problem-solving skills, suggesting that if these things were poorly developed in childhood and during one’s education it could contribute to racial prejudice and political conservatism.) Other studies have found the reverse — that higher I.Q. scores in childhood are associated with antiracism and social liberalism in adulthood. Recent research showed self-described liberals scored on average 6 to 11 percentage points higher on I.Q. tests than self-described conservatives.

(Another article explores more research on the link between conservatism and prejudice.)

Studies into the topic do not end there. One study showed Republican voters were more likely to describe nonsensical axioms (what the researchers dubbed “bullshit”) as profound. So statements such as “Hidden meaning transforms unparalleled abstract beauty” or “Consciousness is the growth of coherence, and of us” were considered profound more often by conservatives than liberals. Scientific American wrote:

After Cruz supporters, Rubio enthusiasts were found most likely to draw inspiration from prosaic dung piles, followed by Trump acolytes. To test whether or not Republicans’ supporters were also more easily inspired by non-BS than Democrats’ supporters, the scientists looked at the subjects’ reactions to true but mundane statements. They found Clinton and O’Malley supporters were most likely to find meaning in the mundane. In other words, conservatives were not more easily inspired than liberals by statements in general—just by what the researchers deemed pseudo-profound BS.

A Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin study from 2011 called “Low-effort Thought Promotes Political Conservatism” tested whether time constraints, mental overload, and even alcohol consumption affected political thought, finding that each tends to make participants move to the Right:

In Study 1, alcohol intoxication was measured among bar patrons; as blood alcohol level increased, so did political conservatism (controlling for sex, education, and political identification). In Study 2, participants under cognitive load reported more conservative attitudes than their no-load counterparts. In Study 3, time pressure increased participants’ endorsement of conservative terms. In Study 4, participants considering political terms in a cursory manner endorsed conservative terms more than those asked to cogitate; an indicator of effortful thought (recognition memory) partially mediated the relationship between processing effort and conservatism. Together these data suggest that political conservatism may be a process consequence of low-effort thought; when effortful, deliberate thought is disengaged, endorsement of conservative ideology increases.

In other words, in the same way people can be primed to liberalism by tasks requiring more advanced cognitive processes, people can be primed to conservatism by requiring, through constraints, less advanced cognitive processes.

Conservative political ideology in Western democracies may be identified by several components, including an emphasis on personal responsibility, acceptance of hierarchy, and a preference for the status quo… Attitudes and behaviors consistent with these components increase as a consequence of thinking that requires little time, effort, or awareness. From this starting point, we develop the argument that political conservatism is promoted when people rely on low-effort thinking. When effortful, deliberate responding is disrupted or disengaged, thought processes become quick and efficient; these conditions promote conservative ideology.

It may be that conservatism, then, was an evolutionary necessity (xenophobia may have been as well). Relying on your own merits, accepting hierarchy and orders without question, and resisting change may have helped survival (already hinted at in Haidt’s five foundations above). As a friend put it, conservatives want “clear-cut values. Everything is black-and-white… This approach is not without its benefits. It’s easier to arrive at ethical/moral conclusions, to act quickly in a moment of crisis, and to remain steadfast in a stance, for better or worse.”

There may even be something physiological about the difference between liberals and conservatives. Self-described liberals were found in one study to have more grey matter in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region of the brain that has influence over error detection, decision-making, emotion control, and handling uncertainty, plus some autonomic functions. Self-described conservatives had a larger right amygdala, which has influence over fear and anxiety. (Another study found “greater liberalism was associated with stronger conflict-related anterior cingulate activity, suggesting greater neurocognitive sensitivity to cues for altering a habitual response pattern” — being more open to change.)

via Cell

The researchers were careful to note that these differences likely do not tell the whole story of why one is conservative or liberal — these regions themselves are not likely the sole cause of political beliefs — but their findings do “converge with previous work to suggest a possible link between brain structure and psychological mechanisms that mediate political attitudes.” Specifically:

Although these results suggest a link between political attitudes and brain structure, it is important to note that the neural processes implicated are likely to reflect complex processes of the formation of political attitudes rather than a direct representation of political opinions per se. The conceptualizing and reasoning associated with the expression of political opinions is not necessarily limited to structures or functions of the regions we identified but will require the involvement of more widespread brain regions implicated in abstract thoughts and reasoning.

We speculate that the association of gray matter volume of the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex with political attitudes that we observed may reflect emotional and cognitive traits of individuals that influence their inclination to certain political orientations. For example, our findings are consistent with the proposal that political orientation is associated with psychological processes for managing fear and uncertainty. The amygdala has many functions, including fear processing. Individuals with a large amygdala are more sensitive to fear, which, taken together with our findings, might suggest the testable hypothesis that individuals with larger amygdala are more inclined to integrate conservative views into their belief system.

Similarly, it is striking that conservatives are more sensitive to disgust, and the insula is involved in the feeling of disgust. On the other hand, our finding of an association between anterior cingulate cortex volume and political attitudes may be linked with tolerance to uncertainty. One of the functions of the anterior cingulate cortex is to monitor uncertainty and conflicts. Thus, it is conceivable that individuals with a larger ACC have a higher capacity to tolerate uncertainty and conflicts, allowing them to accept more liberal views. Such speculations provide a basis for theorizing about the psychological constructs (and their neural substrates) underlying political attitudes. However, it should be noted that every brain region, including those identified here, invariably participates in multiple psychological processes. It is therefore not possible to unambiguously infer from involvement of a particular brain area that a particular psychological process must be involved.

Indeed, it cannot at all be concluded that people are born liberal or conservative; environment can change brain structure during childhood development. For example, a 2015 study showed that parts of the brain tied to academic performance are 8-10% smaller in children from very poor households, likely linked to a miserable environment. The researchers looking at political affiliation and brain structure write that “a longitudinal study [is needed] to determine whether the changes in brain structure that we observed lead to changes in political behavior or whether political attitudes and behavior instead result in changes of brain structure.”

That question has yet to be answered.

How We Change: A Personal Story and Analysis

So, can thought processes or brain structure beyond your control contribute to your political beliefs?

While we should always bear in mind correlation is not the same as causation, and acknowledge that untangling possible causal factors is not easy (i.e., religious fundamentalism and conservatism are so intertwined it may be difficult to determine which contributes more to anti-Muslim sentiment), the evidence suggests the answer is likely yes.

As hard as it may be to hear, conservative thought may be based on more simplistic modes of thinking (or, conversely, conservative thought may lead to more simplistic modes of thinking). An emphasis on in-group/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity could stem from “low-effort” or “less abstract” or “fear-based” thought, which could create an ideology resistant to social changes like racial integration, access to contraceptives, the sexual revolution, immigration, gay marriage, and so on, and fear of losing the rights they value and believe moral, hence the aversion to gun control, government regulation of business, restrictions on religious rights, and so on.

While fear of losing certain rights is not a bad thing (especially things like the right to privacy, freedom to protest, freedom of speech and religion, etc.), resistance to changing traditional ethics and societal rules that are “restrictive” and “oppressive,” as Haidt put them, can be extremely harmful to those who don’t “fit in,” be they Muslims, blacks, gays and lesbians, trans people, Hispanic immigrants, and so forth. In this way, the same cognitive processes that inspire fear of losing important rights may also make conservatives resistant to extending those same rights to others (hence, the sensible desire for Christians to be able to worship free of State control exists alongside mass support for monitoring mosques and banning Muslim immigration, the hypocrisy barely noticed).

This is not to say that all conservatives always struggle with more complex, abstract thinking or always experience fear-based motivations that lead to the mistreatment of certain groups. Nor is it to say that every liberal has a superior cognitive style in comparison to the average conservative, nor that liberals cannot be prejudiced or discriminate against the “Other.” Saying any of these things would simply be untrue. Rather, it is as one psychologist put it, “Reality is complicated and messy. Ideologies get rid of the messiness and impose a simpler solution. So, it may not be surprising that people with less cognitive capacity will be attracted to simplifying ideologies.” It is to say, those with less complex thought processes may create or gravitate toward less complex values and political ideas.

As my friend put it, conservatives tend to see things in black and white. While perhaps some on the Right would criticize this, I’ve heard it upheld as a point of pride (and in my conservative days, I did the same). The Right dislikes moral relativism and grey areas. What’s right is right. What’s wrong is wrong. So for example, it is always wrong to burn the American flag, no matter your reasons for doing so — even if your government is killing countless civilians overseas. What is trounced upon in an act like flag burning? Loyalty to your nation, respect for the State and the troops, perhaps even your purity or the sanctity of the object? To best protect these things, an issue should be black and white. This is where Haidt’s findings come together with prior and later research. Less complex thought (more black and white, less abstract, lower effort, more fear-based) would quite predictably lead to a greater emphasis on the types of moral foundations Haidt shows conservatives care about.

But more complex and abstract thought opens the door to a very grey world indeed, a world requiring “adaptability” and “flexibility” to navigate, a world where loyalty, authority, and notions of sanctity deserve to be questioned, simply because there are so many different perspectives that exist (while respecting an authority may benefit you, it may get someone else killed).

None of this means, as some vitriolic liberal writers gleefully declare, that conservatives are less intelligent or stupid. Is the person who engages in less complex thought (and this would include some liberals, even if more common among conservatives) incapable of anything else? Recall that abstraction is a relative concept — what’s abstract can gradually become concrete (also, there is evidence that, due to factors like literacy and scientific knowledge, humanity’s abstract reasoning skills are improving…and perhaps humanity is thus growing more liberal). Further, remember that an I.Q. test supposedly measures intelligence, yet scores vary by socioeconomic status. Capability is being stunted. In the same way, I imagine these differences between liberals and conservatives have less to do with actual intelligence and more to do with factors that stunt capabilities.

For example, I used to be deeply conservative and am now quite liberal, but I don’t believe I somehow grew less stupid in a transition period of a couple years. I don’t think I’m more intelligent, but rather more knowledgeable. Exposure to new ideas, a growing collection of perspectives and facts — basically, education — perhaps broke the restraints on my capabilities, leading to more abstract thinking and more liberalism (this may help explain why people who earn the highest degrees are disproportionately liberal).

When I consider my own conversion from far Right to far Left, I can see myself beginning on the right side of the Haidt graphic above and moving left, experiencing the changes in the importance of the moral categories as I go, caring more for care/harm and fairness/reciprocity and less and less for the other three. I can look back and consider issues, how they relate to the foundations, and how they changed.

• Harm/care: I used to rarely give a second thought to the foreign civilians who die in the fires of American bombs; today, I consider these people as worthy of life as any American. The U.S. might as well be dropping bombs in Wyoming.  
• Fairness/reciprocity: I used to think that illegal immigrants deserved to be shipped back wherever they came from because they broke our laws; now I think of how I would want to be treated, had I escaped dire poverty or violence in Central or South America.
• In-group/loyalty: I used to pledge my loyalty to the U.S. and the American people; now I pledge allegiance to the human race, remembering what Jack London said, that we should “care more for men and women and little children than for imaginary geographic lines.”
• Authority/respect: I used to think the U.S. could do no wrong; now I gravitate toward what Malcolm X said, “You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality” and what I.F. Stone said, “All governments lie.”
• Purity/sanctity: I used to think drug use was a sin and a sign of social and moral decay, and therefore approved of drug bans, feeling drug users in prison got what they deserved; now I believe what’s morally wrong is only that which hurts others, and think people should have the freedom to choose for themselves what they do with their own bodies.

How did these changes come about? How does political thinking change? I can’t speak for others (nor for any who transitioned from liberal to conservative!) but my answer is more information. Exposure to new ideas. Opening a book written by a liberal or an atheist (religion perpetuates the ideas found in the five moral foundations, including an immense influence over the final three, thus tying in nicely with conservatism; one might wonder what conservatism would be like had religion never existed — perhaps not so much hysteria over sex and sexuality?).

To quote Helen Keller, “How did I become a socialist? By reading.” When I was a conservative, I somehow went about life arrogantly dismissing evolution without ever bothering to read a book, essay, or even a mere sentence by an evolutionary biologist with evidence to offer. The same can be said of global warming. I thought criminalizing abortion would end abortions, without every studying the time in U.S. history when abortion was illegal. And why would I not see the United States as the international good guy, a force of pure good, when I had never read an honest history of American foreign policy, one that hadn’t been sugarcoated?

I was the living embodiment of argumentum ad consequentiam: the belief that X is true or false depending on whether the outcome is desirable or undesirable. I was resistant to change, shied away from exposure to new ways of thinking. I thought in black and white terms, and did not spend much time reflecting on my beliefs, thinking critically, cross-examining them. But slowly, over a process that lasted years, new information and foreign ways of thinking changed my mind about many things (it is difficult to support the criminalization of abortion after you learn just how popular self-induced abortions were in the era of actual criminalization). I found liberal ideas and arguments thoroughly more convincing and best able to improve society for all people.

I don’t know for sure if my brain structure or abstract reasoning changed or improved. But I do know that, whether our cognitive processes and abilities develop our political beliefs or vice versa, nothing is written in stone. Anyone can change.

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