The Truth Behind Your Political Beliefs | Dr. Matthew Wilson, #029

Sitting In Podcast | Ep. 029 - Dr. Matthew Wilson | Dr. Matthew Wilson is a published Political Scientist and a professor at Southern Methodist University (SMU) where he directs the Center for Faith and Learning.

In today's episode, you can expect to learn:

- Whether political beliefs are actually rational

- What "motivated reasoning" is and its impact on society

- The modern interaction between religion and politics

- The way our founding fathers said we should relate to government

and much more!

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00:00 Intro

00:39 Are our political beliefs actually rational?

02:31 Is identity politics new?

03:57 Misunderstandings about why we hold our beliefs

06:20 Is it bad to trust a politician implicitly?

10:17 People actually vote against their best interests

12:29 What's The Matter with Kansas?

15:27 Motivated Reasoning

18:05 The Group Dynamics of opinions

19:22 Social Media's impact on echochambers

20:07 Religion Influencing Politics or Politics Influencing Religion?

23:20 Other partisan bridges besides religion?

25:33 The decline of the "American community" and what a good community means.

27:21 Politics shaping relationships

29:21 Long-Term Polling and Political Division

32:52 Getting Kids Involved in Politics? Why does the Left do it more?

33:45 The role of "faith" in these trends

35:49 What can we do to reduce polarization?

37:50 Younger Gen Z appears to be more skeptical of social media

40:49 Resisting the trap of motivated reasoning

43:45 How to understand credible sources in the age of declining media trust?

48:32 Does studying psychology affect Dr. Wilson's personal trust in Democracy?

51:03 The ideal form of government (given our human limitations)

52:46 The Two things the founding fathers would have said are required for a successful democracy

54:20 What should someone understand before "choosing a side"?

55:34 Is a deep understanding of a few issues enough?

56:38 What would Dr. Wilson beg a young person to do sooner than he did?

59:00 Find more of Dr. Wilson's stuff!