In times of anxiety and uncertainty, humans tend to split the world into good and evil. It’s a natural tendency, a way to feel more comfortable, says best-selling author Amanda Ripley.
Today, you see it among many, many millions of people because there’s a lot of anxiety about the future and fear about the present. We assume that the other side is more extreme than it is, partly because we hear so much from them. 95% of political tweets are written by around 10% of users, so we extrapolate and assume everyone on the other side thinks a certain way.
This tendency, which is very understandable, to split the world into good and evil, us and them, can give us short-term comfort. It may temporarily feel good, but it causes us to make a lot of mistakes in the long term. Here’s why we should avoid seeing the world in such stark divides.
This video The one temptation to resist post-election: Good vs. evil is featured on Big Think.
