4 Reasons People Who Disagree With You Are Idiots

Ever wondered why everyone else seems so stupid? Here are four scientific reasons why you are smarter than all other humans.

There's a rumor floating around the internet and liberal arts programs that by talking to people with a variety of perspectives we can make the world better.

I'm all for this idea, but come on. If you've ever had to look someone in the eye as they tell you they don't think Gilmore Girls is funny, you know this is incredibly difficult to do. It sounds fine and dandy in theory, but in reality, when someone disagrees with me I turn defensive and superior.

I'm not alone in this reaction. Research demonstrates our brains are actually wired to assert and maintain our intellectual dominance. In the world of our minds, facts are mostly irrelevant—even if they run in direct contradiction to our beliefs we will still cling to them, and this only gets worse the more dedicated to a particular belief you become.

This is the reason I lied to my mom as a child and told her I had brushed my teeth when I hadn't. Then, when she pointed out that my toothbrush was dry I told her that as a matter of fact, I always dried my toothbrush after brushing. I then spent years drying my toothbrush on a towel to back up my story and guilt trip my mother for daring to question my commitment to dental hygiene.

It's also why liberals unfriend people whose views disagree with them, why half of conservatives prefer to live in areas where people share their political views, and why vegans believe they are morally superior to carnivores.

In your next political debate don't hold back. Here are four scientifically backed reasons people who disagree with you are actually unintelligent fools:

1. Confirmation Bias

The psychologist Peter Watson coined this term in the 1960s to describe the phenomenon of humans seeking out information confirming beliefs they already hold and ignoring evidence to the contrary. A study at Ohio University found that Americans will spend 36 percent more time reading something that supports a worldview they already agree with and a study at the University of Iowa found that participants clung to beliefs that fulfilled their original expectations—even when it cost them money.

This bias is the brain's way of putting on blinders and making us think others are dumb because, as far as we know, they have absolutely no evidence for their point of view.

2. Compassion Fallacy

The compassion fallacy is when we base our arguments on an appeal to pity (instead of an appeal to logic or evidence) or claim the moral high ground (and assume that only our own moral compass points to true north).

If you were to put everyone I know in a room and ask them who had ever been personally victimized by my use of the compassion fallacy, every single hand would shoot up.

The problem, obviously, is that my perspective of what's compassionate is different than other people's. Also there's the small problem of compassion possibly not being the best motivation for a belief system.

It's super convenient for me to feel that I'm not only smarter than other people, I'm also more compassionate and loving, but it's also super fallacious. In unrelated news, fallacious is my new favorite word.

3. It feels good to think in absolutes

ICANHASCHEEZEBURGER

Our love of Fifty Shades of Grey is not reflected in our political dialogue. We crave absolutes. Either you love Justin Bieber and respect his groundbreaking work as a musician or you are ignorant. There's no in between.

There are a lot of problems with this line of thought. Black and white thinking makes it difficult to hold a conversation, and also contributes to the stronghold of depression. As long as we refuse to live in the fifty shades of grey that color our world, we will continue to look down on those who think differently than us. We also might turn into a Sith.

4. False Consensus Effect

This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like—the tendency to assume the majority of people agree with our viewpoints. So if I think Taco Bell has really delicious burritos (which they do) I'm likely to assume that everyone else likes their burritos and if they don't they're an idiot because clearly Taco Bell is delicious.

However, a study published in the International Journal of Public Opinion Research reports that in some cases we estimate support for our political views to be up to 20 percent higher than it actually is. The authors also discovered that this gap grows wider the more fervently people cling to their beliefs. So the more obsessed I become with Taco Bell, the more delusional I become about how much other people love it. Terrifying news because my obsession with questionable fast food grows stronger by the minute. Luckily I've got a heft confirmation bias to keep me from ever entertaining the notion that Taco Bell might be "gross" and "bad for you."

Giphy

There are hundreds of other biases and fallacies that block us from acknowledging the legitimacy of opposing viewpoints and encourage us to discount other people's opinions, and it's unlikely we'll ever be able to fully escape from their grasp. We can try to remember that 74 percent of Americans claim "compassion and helping others" as core values. We can also remember that our brains are plastic, and can be trained to embrace new ways of thinking.

We can also keep the blinders on and continue to believe everyone else is stupid. We might have to dry a toothbrush on a dirty hand towel for years, but at least we won't have to admit we might be wrong.