In a world where it feels like online political arguments end up going nowhere, it turns out there is a legitimate scientific explanation. When political ideology diminished critical thinking, decreases mathematical skill, and attracts the most psychopathic and low cognitive ability participants, the entire arena becomes an incubation room for the worst types of discourse you can have, with no chance of swaying opinion.

We see what we want to see, even when the cold hard facts are in opposition to our current beliefs. Political ideology and loyalty to it, is a disease.

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The Disease of Online Politics — Summary

• Politics online is increasingly conflict-driven and polarized across countries, not just in the U.S.
• People often perceive the economy and other issues through a partisan lens (e.g., evaluations flip depending on which party controls government), illustrating how belief can override neutral assessment.
• Study evidence #1 (Sweden): syllogistic‐reasoning performance improves when the correct conclusion aligns with a participant’s ideology, and degrades when it conflicts—showing ideological belief bias in formal reasoning.
• Study evidence #2 (8-country sample): individuals high in psychopathy and fear of missing out (FoMO) are more likely to engage in online political activity; higher cognitive ability is associated with lower levels of online political participation; findings for narcissism are mixed across countries.
• Study evidence #3 (motivated numeracy paradigm): when a neutral math table (e.g., “skin cream works?”) is reframed as a hot-button political issue, participants—often the more numerate ones—frequently interpret the same numbers in ideologically consistent (but mathematically incorrect) ways.
• Taken together: online political spaces are disproportionately populated by users prone to lower deliberative reasoning and higher dark-trait tendencies, creating an “incubation space” for dysfunctional discourse.
• The practical takeaway offered is awareness: deliberately slowing down, checking reasoning against facts, and resisting identity-protective thinking can immediately improve personal participation and reduce the pull of online political dysfunction.

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Papers referenced in the video (with DOIs)

• “Motivated formal reasoning: Ideological belief bias in syllogistic reasoning across diverse political issues.” https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2022.2038268
• “Dark personalities in the digital arena: how psychopathy and narcissism shape online political participation.” https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05195-y
• “Motivated numeracy and enlightened self-government.” https://doi.org/10.1017/bpp.2016.2