The Hidden Agenda of the Political Mind: How Self Interest Shapes Our Opinions and Why We Wont Admit It

423 Pages·2015·4.58 MB·English

by  Weeden Jason Kurzban Robert

THE HIDDEN AGENDA OF THE POLITICAL MIND
THE HIDDEN AGENDA OF THE
POLITICAL MIND
HOW SELF-INTEREST SHAPES OUR OPINIONS AND
WHY WE WON’T ADMIT IT
JASON WEEDEN AND ROBERT KURZBAN
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD
Copyright © 2014 by Jason Weeden and Robert Kurzban
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ISBN 978-0-691-16111-2
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Contents
PART I: Political Minds
Chapter 1: Agendas in Action 3
Chapter 2: Investigating Interests 26
Chapter 3: Machiavellian Minds 44
PART II: Political Issues
Chapter 4: Fighting over Sex: Lifestyle Issues and
Religion 69
Chapter 5: Rules of the Game: Group Identities and Human
Capital 96
Chapter 6: Money Matters: Redistribution and Hard-Times
Programs 123
PART III: Political Coalitions
Chapter 7: The Many Shades of Red and Blue 145
Chapter 8: The Republican Coalition 160
Chapter 9: The Democratic Coalition 176
PART IV: Political Challenges
Chapter 10: An Uncomfortable Take on Political
Positions 195
Acknowledgments 217
Appendixes 219
Data Appendix for Chapter 2 219
Data Appendix for Part II 236
Data Appendix for Chapter 4 251
Data Appendix for Chapter 5 268
Data Appendix for Chapter 6 287
Data Appendix for Chapter 8 304
Data Appendix for Chapter 9 321
Notes 343
References 351
Index 359
PART I
Political Minds
CHAPTER 1
Agendas in Action
MITT ROMNEY WAS DEFEATED BY SELF-INTEREST. Not his own, but the
self-interested voting of poor minorities and those meddling kids.
At least that’s how he saw things in the week after his 2012
election loss to the incumbent, President Barack Obama. On a
conference call with disappointed fund-raisers and donors, Romney
offered his post-game analysis: “What the president’s campaign did
was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them
extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work
very aggressively to turn them out to vote, and that strategy worked.”
Romney and his strategists listed the policy gifts and the
beneficiaries. Obama bestowed “amnesty” on certain young
immigrants by executive order, a move that “was obviously very, very
popular with Hispanic voters.” The president passed Obamacare,
“which basically is ten thousand dollars a family,” a good price for
the votes of poorer Americans. As for those meddling kids, they got to
stay on their parents’ health insurance plans, received cuts in student-
loan interest rates, and got “free contraceptives,” something that was
“very big with young, college-aged women.” Romney’s summary: “It’s
a proven political strategy, which is give a bunch of money to a group
and, guess what, they’ll vote for you.”
Romney surely could have added other “gifts” to his list. In the
spring of 2012, not long before Obama issued his new directive for
young immigrants, he announced his support for same-sex marriage,