About this item
When it comes to politics, we often perceive our own beliefs as fair and socially beneficial, while seeing opposing views as merely self-serving. But in fact most political views are governed by self-interest, even if we usually don’t realize it. Challenging our fiercely held notions about what motivates us politically, this book explores how self-interest divides the public on a host of hot-button issues, from abortion and the legalization of marijuana to same-sex marriage, immigration, affirmative action, and income redistribution.Expanding the notion of interests beyond simple economics, Jason Weeden and Robert Kurzban look at how people’s interests clash when it comes to their sex lives, social status, family, and friends. Drawing on a wealth of data, they demonstrate how different groups form distinctive bundles of political positions that often stray far from what we typically think of as liberal or conservative.
About the Author
Jason Weeden is a senior researcher with the Pennsylvania Laboratory for Experimental Evolutionary Psychology and a lawyer in Washington, DC. He received his PhD in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and conducted post-doctoral research in the Evolutionary Social Cognition Lab at Arizona State University. His peer-reviewed research publications have covered a wide range of topics, from attractiveness and sexual activity to religion and politics. He is the co-author with Robert Kurzban of The Hidden Agenda of the Political Mind (Princeton University Press, 2014) .
