Lecture III: Ideology, Fantasy, Myth: Inspiration and Cognitive Bias in Hierarchical and Egalitarian Ideologies

Inegalitarian ideologies that underwrite social hierarchy persuade subordinates to acquiesce to a domination contract by preying on their cognitive and emotional biases and vulnerabilities. Biases in fear, sympathy, and shame drive people’s acquiescence to subordinate status. Populist authoritarian movements appeal to individuals’ desires for esteem through fantasies of group-based superiority, whereby members bask in the glory of their group without much personal effort. They also purport to compensate individuals subordinated through one social identity by exalting them along an intersecting identity. Such promises are fraudulent and based on false zero-sum thinking. Egalitarian social movements can undercut populist narratives by exposing the ways virtually everyone loses under populist domination contracts, and by offering inspiring depictions of how everyone can win esteem by basking in the glory of the collective achievement of an egalitarian social contract in which we promote everyone’s flourishing.