Looking Back, Looking Forward

Hello All,

After having a discussion in class and being able to re-read Looking Back, Looking Forward: ISPP at 40 and Future Directions for Political Psychology , I have a different understanding prior to the one I had before.

We covered a few topics in the article, but mainly the section going over "The erosion of scientific Rationalism." The article presents results of a study that examines the extent to which Democrats, Republicans, and independents were likely to defer to scientific expertise in matters of policy.

The average score all across was a 6.4.

Now, the article claims that these results suggest voters generally want policymakers to refer to scientific evidence, meaning scientific rationalism is not on the decline. But, after hearing Professor Andrews comment on how those results really aren’t that high, I now lean towards the idea that scientific rationalism is on a decline. She brought up an interesting point that a result such as a 7.3 or higher would suggest Scientific rationalism isn’t on the decline. Scores like 6.4 and 5.5 really demonstrate how split down the middle we are as a society when it comes to what we base our beliefs on.No matter if you are a liberal or conservative, it is highly likely that scientific evidence will be challenged if it does not align with an individual's beliefs.

The article also touches base on measurement and prediction and humans as “political animals”.

Social media is now a great tool to advance voter behavior, voter attitudes and measuring public opinion.“Political animals” are simply individuals engaged in politics and the group that aligns with their beliefs. Personally, I believe we need more political animals in this society, myself included, because it doesn’t take long to notice politics is how our entire society operates. If one decides not to be involved or have an opinion on what is going on in society, then that will leave them no room to be upset with how things are going and what type of political leaders are being chosen. Trump's presidency is a great example of needing more people being politically engaged in what is going on. Many people were upset by Trump’s winning, but a lot of those individuals didn’t even vote.
As humans, it is a part of our nature to naturally gravitate towards a group, so it is important that we find others with similar beliefs so that we can get representatives in office that align with our beliefs.