Imaginary Enemies

Issue 144: People dislike their political opponents for views most don't actually hold (and a Thanksgiving/Black Friday 20% discount on on paid subscriptions)

Introduction from Dom & Jay

Since publishing our book and starting this newsletter, we have been welcomed by a wonderful community of kind and smart fellow authors. With the purpose of increasing the cross-fertilization of ideas and sharing some of their brilliance with our audience, we have decided to publish an occasional post by other thinkers and writers who we think are doing great work related to smart groups and effective identities.

This week, we are pleased to publish a guest post by Dr. Steve Stewart Williams, Professor of Psychology at the University of Nottingham Malaysia. Steve is author of the book, “The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve”, as well as the very popular “The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter”. We encourage you to check out his book and sign up for his newsletter.

As Steve notes, “One of the major causes of political polarization is the fact that people dislike their political opponents for views most don’t actually hold - a te…