UC Santa Cruz

A growing body of empirical data on human cognition indicates that, despite self-assessments of our reasoning as open-minded, disinterested, and motivated by accuracy, various psychological phenomena associated with our social identity and political ideology significantly bias our cognition when forming political beliefs and engaging in public discourse; such phenomena include motivated reasoning and the introspective illusion. Since these phenomena can undermine equitable, cooperative public discourse in a flourishing democracy, this dissertation focuses on developing practical means of diminishing our susceptibility to engage in such psychological phenomena. To this end, I argue that close friendships can serve as an important social context for cultivating intellectual virtues that support equitable, cooperative deliberation indicative of a flourishing democracy.