The Molecule of More

THE MOLECULE OF MORE

the exercise of imagination contribute to the leftward shift in political
beliefs? A separate study suggests that it did.
Abstract thinking is one of the primary functions of the dopamine
system. Abstract thinking allows us to go beyond sensory observation of
events to construct a model that explains why the events are occurring.
A description that relies on the senses focuses on the physical world:
things that actually exist. The technical term for this type of thinking is
concrete. That’s an H&N function, and scientists call it low-level thinking.
Abstract thinking is called high-level. A group of scientists wondered if
people who tended to think concretely would be more hostile to groups
who  were different from themselves—people they  perceived as  threat-
ening the stability of their way of life—such as gays, lesbians, Muslims,
and atheists.
Research volunteers were given two descriptions of events, such
as ringing a doorbell. They had to choose which description was best.
One was  concrete (ringing a  doorbell is  moving a  finger), and  the  other 
was abstract (ringing a doorbell is seeing if anyone is home). Next they
asked them to rate their feelings of liking and warmth for gays, lesbi-
ans, Muslims, and atheists. They found a direct relationship between
choosing concrete descriptions and reporting lower levels of liking and
warmth.
The next step was to see if these feelings could be manipulated by
stimulating the participants to think abstractly. They chose the subject
of exercise, a topic completely unrelated to the acceptance of poten-
tially threatening groups. The researchers began by asking the partici-
pants to think about maintaining good physical health. Then half were
asked to describe how they would do it (concrete) and the other half
were asked to describe why it’s important (abstract). Describing how had
no  effect on  attitudes, but  describing why raised the conservative partic-
ipants’ feelings of liking and warmth for the unfamiliar groups to the
point where there was  no  significant difference between their attitudes 
and the attitudes of liberals.
Activating dopamine pathways is one way to make conservatives
think more like liberals. But we can do something similar by exploiting
the very circuits that make conservatives act conservatively: the H&N