Political Psychology

Social media has become integral in the day to day lives of our youth. It has brought together many people  from all over the world. The one con of social media that I think the article fail to include is the social media influencers. A Social Media Influencer is a user on social media who has established credibility in a specific industry. A social media influencer has access to a large audience and can persuade others by virtue of their authenticity and reach. Everyday, our youth are watching these individuals. They advertise products to kids. Promoting products via social media influencers can be categorized as a form of subconscious marketing. For ages, brands and advertisers have been seeking to shape consumers’ thoughts, attitudes, and behavior, without us even being aware of it.

The International Society of Political Psychology is a not for profit organization that focuses on the research and theory that involves politics and psychology. Reynolds sets up her premise by talking about how ISPP is growing. Through this growth, there are somethings that change and Reynolds pointed out the growing number of women in ISPP and how diverse its members are. In the culmination of their research, Reynolds pointed out a few trends of where political psychology is going. There are three classifications: erosion of scientific rationalism, measurement and prediction, and common theoretical assumptions that humans are political animals. Erosion of Scientific Rationalism Rationalism is the belief that our opinion or actions should be based around reason and knowledge rather than religious beliefs or emotional response. Reynolds goes on to talk about why people are leaning away from scientific evidence is due to their own personal values. If the scientific facts don...

Funny video that I think is relevant to the topic. "Whoever be the individuals that compose it, however like or unlike be their mode of life, their occupations, their character, or their intelligence, the fact that they have been transformed into a crowd puts them in possession of a sort of collective mind which makes them feel, think, and act in a manner quite different from that in which each individual of them would feel, think, and act were he in a state of isolation. There are certain ideas and feelings which do not come into being, or do not transform themselves into acts except in the case of individuals forming a crowd" (Le Bon)." I'd like to think that humans in a particular group don't forgo their way of thinking simply because they are a part of a crowd. The rationality of an individual is still there. I disagree with Le Bon's thinking that we essentially reshape ourselves to become a part of collective mind. I think humans become more aware...