A neuroscientist explains why evangelicals are wired to believe Trump's lies

[Arkansas Granny]

President Donald Trump lies so often that it is no longer shocking when it happens, no matter how blatant or absurd the falsehood may be. Not only does Trump regularly exaggerate the truth, he frequently denies facts that can be observed directly from video or audio tapes. This has led some professionals to diagnose his lying as compulsive or pathological, and many psychologists have pointed out that he is constantly gaslighting his base—a term that refers to a strategic attempt to get others to question their direct experience of reality.

With so much evidence to contradict his claims, like having the largest inauguration crowd size despite pictures clearly showing otherwise, one must wonder how there are still people out there who believe anything the man says. But the fact of the matter is there are many who swallow it hook, line, and sinker. Most of his fervent supporters are convinced that Trump is the harbinger of truth when it comes to important issues like climate change—which is really just a “hoax perpetrated by the Chinese government”.

While this might sound laughable, it is a serious problem, as it has contributed to fake news and dangerous propaganda running rampant. Given its negative impact on society, it is important to understand why certain groups of people are more vulnerable to believing unsupported lies than others. For this, we must look to science for answers, and fortunately, the fields of psychology and neuroscience offer valuable insight.

<snip>

For Christian fundamentalists, being taught to suppress critical thinking begins at a very early age. It is the combination of the brain’s vulnerability to believing unsupported facts and aggressive indoctrination that create the perfect storm for gullibility. Due to the brain’s neuroplasticity, or ability to be sculpted by lived experiences, evangelicals literally become hardwired to believe far-fetched statements.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/10/neuroscientist-explains-evangelicals-wired-believe-trumps-lies/

[Turbineguy]

1. Morons are trained

not born. Who knew?

[ProudLib72]

2. Morans! Get it right!

[madinmaryland]

25. Get a brain, Morans.

[irresistable]

51. I'm sorry, but no cat would fall for any of Trump's nonsense.

This is clearly photoshopped.

[ProudLib72]

52. It is absolutely true!

Just that they switched the cat brain for a deplorable brain. It was done in an attempt to try and make deplorables more intelligent. It worked, but the deplorables had this overwhelming desire to chase string and poop in gravel.

[olegramps]

64. That is immoral abuse of cats.

[calimary]

61. That's pretty funny!

[SuprstitionAintthWay]

48. Organized religion in almost all its forms is authoritarian.

Patriarchal authoritarianism at that.

A lot of people innately crave to be relieved of the burden and responsibility of decision-making, and look for someone or something to do it for them. Training in this way of coping helps, but for many the instinct is already there.

Trump is America's most successful authoritarian ever. Especially for many of our evangelicals, it's a completely natural fit.

If the new demagogue on the scene also shares the same racial and sexual bigotries as you do, all together it makes for a big "Hell YEAH!" He's like some kind of political messiah to them.

[lindysalsagal]

55. He's even more popular than most demagogues because he doesn't demand a price: "Come as you are!"

Usually they call for sacrifice: Work toward some cause, reliquish freedoms, forego comforts, put the larger good ahead of your own needs.

Not this guy. He asks nothing of them but their loyalty and the shutting of their eyes, ears, hearts and memories.

[SuprstitionAintthWay]

74. You're right. Just show up with your fears, your hatred of "the others", and your votes

...is all he asks of them.

All donations have already been taken care of for you by Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, people like those... along with corporate America, Russia, and a whole lot of dark money nobody will ever know the sources of.

Yeah, Trump's demagoguery is a much better deal than pentecostalism.

[vlyons]

3. Yeah well have you ever read the Nicene creed?

The creed accepted by almost all Christian denominations. To me, it is completely preposterous, beginning with a virgin birth, all the way to Jesus sits at the right hand of God. What about the left hand? I grew up reciting the Nicene creed. I think I was about 10, when I ditched it, because my fervant prayers to god for protection from my mother, never stopped her beating me.

[MineralMan]

6. Exactly!

[Achilleaze]

13. What about the left hand?

republicans

[Xipe Totec]

43. Republicans are Sudden Baptists - They get religion just before elections. nt

[olegramps]

66. Don't denigrate mommy. She was instilling fear that is requred for indoctrination and salvation.

I was raised in a Catholic home. Both of my parents were devote Catholics who would I thought would never question the local priests authority and regarded bishops and the pope's every burb and fart as infallible truth. I went to a Catholic school where the memorization of the church's Baltimore Catechism was mandatory. It is hard for people to comprehend the power of indoctrination who are not raised in strict religious environments. The very first question and answer was Who made you? God made you. Question, answer were dutifully drilled into our little noggins by the nuns. With the advent of puberty came a radical shift to the particular importance was sexual sins.

When I was about twelve or thirteen I attended what was called a mission. A fire and brimstone priest know for their sermons was brought in about once a year to lead these sessions. We were divided up between men, boys, women and girls in a separate sessions. The stress of these conferences was on sexual purity. How sexually pure were especially blessing to God. For the boys it was the evil of being lured into sexual relations with girls and the particular evil of sexual self abuse. That was their carefully selected intimidating term for masturbation. If you had been lured by the devil to this horrid practice you were putting your soul in eternal damnation in the excruciating fires of hell for eternity. If you should fail, you must go to confession and cleansed of this abominable sin before ever thinking of going to Holy Communion which would be another deadly sin. It was a terrify situation.


When we got home, my brother, who is three years older than me, really surprised me. We had been given these little books you were to use as a examination of conscience before going to confession. The book was a catalogue that listed all the sins that you could have committed. My brother threw his book in the waste basket in our room and said it was all a pack of lies. I have no idea how he came to repell, but I think that it was because of my grandfather who was not a Catholic. He came to have a lot influence on both of our lifes. What ever the cause, my brother became more and more resistent to the indoctrination we were subjected to and demanded to be allowed to attend a public school. My father was not going to have any part of this. It was his duty to raise his kids Catholic.

Again my grandfather prevailed when my brother appealled to him. I remember the day as if it happened yesterday. My grandfather came to our home and confronted my father. He said that my brother had an inalienable right to formation of his own conscience in religious matters and for him to impose his will on him was immoral. As the discussion became a little more heated it was then that my mother stepped in and said that my brother was old enough to chose which school he wanted to attend and furtmore that he was to be allowed to form his own conscience in regard to religion. I didn't learn to much latter that my brother had been approached by a priest and this had been at the bottom of the uprising and my brother had confided in my grandfather who he trusted. I never knew the particulars but happily, I soon followed in the footsteps of my brave brother and waved a welcome goodbye to the nuns. My mother was a well educated women which was a rarity in that day primarily due to my grandfather's wealth until the depression broke him like so many others. She increasingly became an out spoken opponent of religious indoctrination that had gone in Catholic Schools. She was a person of strength and integrity who wasn't about to be told to sit down and shut up like so many women of that period who were brow beaten into meek compliance. A lot of people knew what was going on but, they just didn't have the guts to speak out.

[vlyons]

68. thank-you for sharing

I especially liked the part about forming one's own conscious in regard to religion.

[llmart]

71. Great story.

I was married to a guy who was brought up in the same way. I used to tell him he couldn't help it that he was brainwashed at an early age when he was too little to even know it was happening. He had many, many issues that he couldn't or wouldn't deal with which is why I'm no longer with him. However, I do remember that he told me by the time he was a teenager he told his abusive mother that he was not going to Catholic schools any longer. She threatened him with sending him away to military school.

The Catholic indoctrination ruins lives.

I was smart enough to tell him that there would be no way our children would ever go to a Catholic school and made him agree before we even had children. My children do not consider themselves religious at all.

Thank God! (That's meant to be a pun.)

[olegramps]

75. During that period if a Catholic married a non-Catholic they had to swear to raise the kids Catholic

Some of this stuff is hardly believable to non-Catholics. Unfortunately, this is going on today in these so-called fundamentalist churches. It is also being done to a limited extent in some ultra-conservative Catholic groups such as the Catholic group "People of Praise." The recent appointment to a life time judgeship is that of Amy Coney Bennett. She came close to being Trump's appointment to the Supreme Court. These people have totally jumped off the deep in.

[llmart]

82. Yeah, I remember that...

but I told my soon to be husband that wasn't going to happen. I also told him, "You can walk away now, but you can't say you didn't know what I stood for."

I also informed him I was a feminist and I intended to use birth control. In fact, we had a liberal priest and in our "interview" with him I told him the same thing and he said to me, "I'm fine with that." I guess we went priest shopping for a liberal one and found one.

[llmart]

70. Well said!

It's not just evangelicals.

[Crash2Parties]

73. "Left" is sinister & evil

Part of Xianity's roots mired in appropration of anything that stood in its way.

[TexasBushwhacker]

85. It's amazing how many Christians know nothing about the Nicene creed

There were thousands of followers of Jesus, and had a variety of beliefs. Not all believed that Mary was a virgin, or in the trinity or even that Jesus was the son of God. But the control freaks of what became the Catholic church didn't just convert Constantine. They declared that any Christians that didn't believe in their brand of Christianity were heretics and should be put to death. Many at the time adopted Catholicism as their faith, but others went underground until the Reformation, which allowed a bit more flexibility.

[NightWatcher]

4. You show me a person who believes that a 600 year old dude built a boat by hand big enough

for two of every animal which was summoned to the boat launch party from all over the globe and I'll show you someone who thinks that trump is doing a good job.

[vlyons]

14. Noah's ark! What a hoot!

If there were a platform out there in space that would hold a big enough balance scale. And if you put all the insects in the dish on one side, and all the land animals in the dish on the other side; the sheer weight of the insects would fling the land animals further out into space.

The coleoptera order (beetles) alone is the largest order with over 400,000 identified species, and new ones are found all the time. Coleoptera comprise 40% of described insects and 25% of all known animal life-forms. Darwin ironically observed that God must be inordinately fond of beetles, because he made so many of them.

Creationists just cannot deal with a lifetime of having been brainwashed. Unimaginative, intellectually lazy, and completely incurious. Hand them a pre-packaged belief system, add water, and stir.

[zentrum]

23. Fascinatin'. Thanx!

[japple]

26. Oh hell, you don't understand. They were all just mixed up in there together like one big

happy family. Ants, elephants, skunks, crocodiles, mosquitos, dogs, cats, everything. It was a magical ark and Noah, a man of GAWD, was in charge.

[vlyons]

65. Hope there were a lot of dung beetles to roll up the feces and push overboard

Have you even seen, or SMELLED, a barn yard, or driven by a cattle feed lot? Hmmm I'll just leave you with that thought about Noah's ark.

[japple]

86. Guess I should always remember to post the

smilie. Some folks just don't seem to get it unless you post the thiny.

[lindysalsagal]

56. It reduced the jew's 537 rules to 10. The pagans had endless gods and stories of punishment.

In the pagan world, you never knew who was going to have a fight with which other jealous god and take revenge on the poor mortals. The in-fighting was continuous. What a bleeting mess!

And along came the simple 10 commandments, and only 1 god, who promised to be benevolant if you kept to the 10 rules. Plus, you could eat/drink anything you want! What a bargain! And, he came pre-sacrificed! No more human or animal sacrifices! Sign me up!

[lindysalsagal]

29. Religious 1,000 years ago: Get a pass. 21st century: Get a brain.

[MineralMan]

5. Exactly, and that's the problem we're facing, isn't it?

[Thekaspervote]

7. EVILGELICALS!! A slug has a better functioning brain

[DocFwi]

53. As an Evangelical

I am offended and hurt by your (and others) derogatory comments here. Not all evangelicals buy into Trump's lies. Please don't perpetuate the stereotype that the democratic party is hostile or hateful toward Christians by hurling insults here. To defeat the GOP next month we need a broad coalition. Also I have an IQ of 132 so my brain is functioning just peachy. God bless.

[UpInArms]

62. Am thinking you forgot to add that

thingie



And welcome to DU

[TryLogic]

78. I feel for you. I hope you are not promoting destruction of the planet

so you can get to heaven ASAP.

I am sorry to say this, but it looks to me like religions cause a hell of a lot of problems in the world.

I was raised as a fundamentalist evangelical, so as I said, I feel for you. I am pretty sure I understand where you are coming from.

[fleabiscuit]

87. They are not just Trumps lies. nt

[Cary]

89. I read a pretty good book called "The Evangelicals"

It is true you all are not homogenious. However you must own some things about the group you continue to identify with and the people with whom you choose to continue to associate.

[The_jackalope]

8. It's no mystery why evangelical Christianity is hard-wired into talk radio

Right-wing talk radio is the secular equivalent of evangelical Christianity.

Both are propaganda mills whose modus operandi is to shut down the critical thinking faculties of their victims. They use a technique similar to one that came to be known as "psychic driving" in the brainwashing business.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychic_driving

Psychic driving was a psychiatric procedure of the 1950s and 1960s in which patients were subjected to a continuously repeated audio message on a looped tape to alter their behaviour.

[lindysalsagal]

31. RW radio is the mental equivalent of Hamburger Helper.

It's hot, it's red, it fills you up, there must be something real in there somewhere?

[H2O Man]

10. Yes.

It's also known as sociology.

[H2O Man]

16. Respect5fully disagree.

In this case, it is an examination of the common threads that result in "group think." It does not intend to identify each and every individual who supports Trump as fitting that description. Rather, it identifies those common features that tend to result in this type of herd behavior.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

12. Neuroscientists don't psychoanalyze.

Fun pretending they do though, isn't it?

[H2O Man]

17. Very good point.

It's a science that has shed great light on some aspects of human behaviors, both generally and in some specific areas. I'm thinking of brain injuries, sociopathy, and a number of mental illnesses as the specifics. Yet, as you accurately note, that is distinct from psychoanalysis. It seems evident the scientist in question here is well informed, and speaking to sociological patterns.

[OhNo-Really]

44. The series "perception" on Hulu is interesting. Star is a neuroscientist w/schizaphrenia

A detective show as well

Good escape imhp

[LanternWaste]

22. Less fun, more insight.

I can certainly understand why many people would trivialize the sciences as 'fun' rather than practical research offering us additional insights into the human condition.










"And it doesn't address why charges haven't been filed..."

[Hortensis]

38. THIS research started because of the Holocaust, when

educated white Christian citizens of an advanced European nation, the planet's leader in the sciences, obediently murdered or accepted the murder of millions of their fellow citizens. Even though research has been suppressed by the right, and pretty much gone into hiding, we know a lot about this type of person now, and with anxious times and very bad leaders they have become a force in our nation.

Simple version is that these followers turn decision-making, including issues of conscience, over to their leaders. They instead take great pride in loyalty, believe whatever they're told, and have effectively no limits of their own. They're almost entirely conservative in personality, though supposedly there are some authoritarian tendencies in some in the far left. They're very, very lacking in self awareness.

In calm times perhaps 20% of a populace are strong authoritarians, always wanting a leader to obey, but their numbers can rise to around half in times of anxiety and trouble. Which is where we are now.

I'm pretty much permanently scared these days.

[TryLogic]

79. Interesting!

[Hortensis]

80. I notice I should have said Christianity-dominated nation.

It wasn't only Christian Germans, of course. But until then our part of the world assumed these things only happened among "less evolved" people of, of course, heathen religions. It was apparently quite a nasty awakening.

Speaking of, though, the NYT has an article reporting that Trump is losing some young evangelical women. As one said, she cares just as much about babies at the border as she does about babies in the womb.

[JoeOtterbein]

15. I always thought they were just plain stupid. I guess it takes more work to be a...

a Trumper than I thought!

[lunatica]

50. Well it depends on what you mean by stupid.

Among the many ways I define it a person can be educated, smart in many ways but never makes intelligent choices or decisions because they don’t learn from their failures. So they fail and fail because in order to succeed they have to do something they simply don’t want to do. They just keep making stupid choices yet somehow they don’t get that they are being stupid.

Or like mafiosos. They put all their energy into being crooks when they could put less energy into doing legitimate things. Stupid.

[FakeNoose]

18. The people who run the evangelical/fundie churches are not gullible

They know exactly what kind of scam they're running on their church members and "true believers." That's why they're in cahoots with the ultra-rightwing, and they're working hard to keep their members poor, docile and stupid.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

27. And, they're taught to be self-righteous about it as well.

.............

[defacto7]

67. Some do, some don't. I wouldn't give them that much blanketed credit.

Many of the brainwashed go right to the top.

[moondust]

19. 20+ years of Fox News and RW radio

have taught them to believe that the truth is whatever they want it to be, whatever reinforces their beliefs and makes them feel good.

Pity the children growing up in this maelstrom: being taught one thing at school and then going home to be taught that the opposite is true.

[IronLionZion]

20. Books written thousands of years ago and translated in several languages are God's truth

but anything that happened a few years ago is ancient history and must be ignored for consideration for political office. Since it was a different time back then (few years ago) but nothing has changed in the world over thousands of years for scriptures to be any less valid today.

[defacto7]

69. Perfect example of ignoring simple logic.

Most ignore it for fear of an ideological breakdown, others ignore it for political or financial gain.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

21. It's not just evangelicals.

All religions require their adherents to suppress critical thinking, at least in the areas that involve their religion. They all ultimately say that there are certain things you must take on faith alone. Not all religions go with the complete anti-science garbage, but any truly independent thinker will move completely away from any and all religion.

[phylny]

32. I'm a very independent thinker. I'm a Presbyterian.

I'm pretty smart, though not brilliant. I don't need to suppress anything to match my faith and the world I see around me.

I'm a progressive Democrat and can recognize lying, gaslighting,, and coercion when I see it.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

45. Yes, the liberal Protestants, like Presbyterians

are good at independent thinking. I probably should have made it clear that in religious matters very many people of faith suspend their disbelief. Again, I'm referring to things like the Resurrection, Virgin Birth, and other things of doubtful veracity.

I happen to hang out with Presbyterians these days in my volunteer work at the local homeless shelter. Were I inclined to join a faith group, it would probably be them.

I hope this awkward explanation makes me clear.

[phylny]

47. YOU are just fine :)

I have immense problems with Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, and Jerry Falwell, Jr.

[defacto7]

72. Curious... Which Presbyterian denomination are you part of?

They're very different.

[TryLogic]

81. I think religious people try to believe as much as possible.

Most make heavy use of compartmentalization. In my struggle to break free I aimed at some combination of genuineness and integrity, in the sense of getting beliefs and realities aligned. I was trying to decompartmentalize so I could feel like one entity. I gained a sense of wholeness and freedom.

[lindysalsagal]

57. Yet the bible promotes slavery and child murder and genocide.

And is so full of contradictions, it makes a person's head spin.

My problem with the bible is that it doesn't make a lick of sense, and then it tells people to feel shame and guilt and await the afterlife.

All of that relinquishes people from having to take responsibility for their lives and other's needs and the planet.

All religions rely on, "Oh, well. God must have a plan!" What if that's not the case?

[phylny]

60. I'm not going to defend my faith here, but will say

that your definition of the Bible and mine are different, and your supposition is different as well.

[lindysalsagal]

63. Hey- It says what it says. I'm not adding anything that isn't there. I wouldn't tell anyone "how" to

read it, either. I thought King James took care of that?

[Scurrilous]

24. K&R

[backscatter712]

30. And this is why we need to stupid-shame them at every opportunity.

[lindysalsagal]

33. I like this study because it doesn't rely on voluntary thoughts or statements or reporting.

People are quite unreliable when it comes to how they answer the simplest questions. This study either reads electricity, or it doesn't. No trickery involved. Great study. And, it bears out with regular, personal experience.

[DoctorJoJo]

34. Translation: When You've Already Bought the Biggest Lie of All,

Trump's lies are like chicken soup!

[LiberalFighter]

35. That is why they have Sunday church services.

It helps to brain wash them. And keep them brain washed.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

36. Their belief structure does everything upside-down.

They start out by first believing with blind faith in a leader, which follows the pattern of most so-called conservatives.

Their entire psychological stability relies on having a clear cut leadership structure in their lives such as (top-down): God/Jesus > Preacher > Politician (with same beliefs as preacher), the birth father/grandfathers and then (maybe) mothers. Powerful business and media people may also be wedged in there, too.

So, if an existing leader in the structure says "Trump is the man for us", then he is automatically without question accepted into the structure. After that, everything he says is gospel and we all know that justification for anything can be found somewhere in the Bible.

.......

Conversely, rational thinking folks don't accept leaders until they've proven that their beliefs track those of potential followers.

[lindysalsagal]

58. Include the bending of "science" to support the cult, rather than following observation wherever it

leads. They only see/hear what leads to the foregone conclusion. Real science is not lead by outcome: It follows facts wherever they lead.

[apkhgp]

37. I would like to join everyone in hitting the PANIC button

That is those buttons in the voting booth November 6. It is a start against the Liar in Chief that sits in OUR White House. Being made aware of how dangerous this idiot is scares the hell out of me.

[k2qb3]

39. I think it's actually a lot simpler and more fundamental than that.

Theism at its core is the belief that God intervenes in natural causality.

If natural causality isn't reliable, you don't really have any way to judge whether a claim is plausible or not, all things are possible.

It completely disrupts peoples ability to reason effectively from the first premise, and that first premise is incredibly hard to examine when everything else rests on it.

[FakeNoose]

46. Many of the DUers do believe in God

... but we're extremely cynical about organized religion and the way churches have been run in the US. Most of us Democrats support the Constitutional separation of church and state. Throw in the fact that religious institutions are given tax-exempt status but they participate in politics like any other lobby group, and hoax is complete.

Personally I was raised in the Catholic Church and I don't doubt the sincerity of many Catholics. However I do question their grasp of logic, given the Church's position on many social issues including abortion, birth control, homosexuality, child abuse, divorce, and public education. (I'm going to quit now before I launch a full rant.)

Please don't take this personally - I agree with you on an intellectual level. It's just that churches do everything they can to keep intellect out of the picture.

[Pepsidog]

40. It's exhausting

[elocs]

41. "For Christian fundamentalists, being taught to suppress critical thinking

begins at a very early age."

The last job I worked at before I retired was as a custodian at the Salvation Army and its homeless shelter. That I was an atheist working at the Salvation Army is another story.
One time when I was cleaning in the office I heard the Major (the heads of each individual Salvation Army are a married couple and each is a major) lament that today's schools are not teaching the kids critiacal thinking, which immediately caused me to wonder and thing "wow!" because I've always considered critical thinking to be the death knell for religious belief.

[sandensea]

42. It's easy, when someone's entertaining one's petty hatreds

"Flattering the people's prejudices, exciting their jealousies and apprehensions," as Hamilton put it.

If someone is susceptible to that, it's pretty much over (although people can and do change).

[pansypoo53219]

49. faith based politikkks. same as reagan's faith based ekonomikkks.

[NeverTrumpDemocrat]

54. No. They believe Trump's lies because they've been rock-ribbed Republicans for decades.

So they're stuck in a Red Team vs. Blue Team mentality. Polarization and tribalism is the reason they support
the unrepentant sinner in the White House.

I think that's a far more cogent explanation than what some Rawstory "neuroscienist" wants to allege about religion and "neuroplasticity" and whatnot.

[lindysalsagal]

59. It was done by Neuroscientist Sam Harris and others.

The link to the actual study shows that contradiction requires more brain power. Acquiescence is simple.

[TryLogic]

76. I escaped from the fundamentalists' alternative reality and programmed brain, but

it was not easy! It actually took years and some tough times, like escaping drug addiction perhaps.

[anarch]

77. I am so thankful to my parents for having been brought up to think things out for myself

And also, for the first time in a while, reminds me that I really shouldn't feel hatred toward these people (meaning at least some of the purportedly Christian types who support the assclown). It's not entirely their fault, and they'd have a lot of obstacles to overcome in order to use their brains as the Lord intended. Wonder what it would take to convince them that the guy actually, really is the Antichrist that was foretold in their Bible.

I'm not smearing all Christians here, so don't be mad. I was brought up in a Christian faith of sorts (UU, so kind of a grey area I suppose). I just mean that the fundamentalists are acting out of good intentions, even as they're being led down a path of damnation.

Who is it that really calls the shots, as far as the unified Evangelical/Fundamentalist White-Wing churches are concerned? Do they all get a memo every week, to keep the brainwashing consistent in order to serve the GOP's agenda? Who? The Family? The Klan? Who coordinates it all? We should try to get to them....

[RainCaster]

83. The MSM is complicit in this!

[dchill]

84. "...taught to suppress critical thinking begins at a very early age."

Nutshell. All ingnorance flows from this.

[Snackshack]

88. So basically it...

Boils down to being lazy?

Critical thinking takes effort. Belief requires no critical thinking therefore no effort. That is some epic laziness because it does not take much critical thinking to realize and understand why the Earth is older then 6000 yrs...and round to boot.