The Ideological Brain is an interesting and layman accessible monograph by Dr. Leor Zmigrod on the complex interconnectedness of neurology and how it shapes and informs ideology. Released 25th March 2025 by Henry Holt & co., it's 304 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
Political beliefs and conditioning have profound effects on the brain. Dr. Zmigrod carefully explores the ramifications between political ideology and belief, and neurology at a very fundamental level. She winds up setting up the equation backwards from what most people would formulate... instead of saying how does a particular belief system *affect* the brain.. she posits that certain world views are more likely rooted in cognition and actual physical biology. (Which is both profound and troubling).
It's an interesting book, and shows how ideology has profound effects on behavior, and how some people are more likely to become radicalized and susceptible to extremism.
It's not an easy read, there's some amount of technical jargon involved, but overall, it's layman accessible, and the author writes in plain non-academically rigorous language. It's meticulously annotated throughout, and the chapter notes will provide keen readers with lots of scope for further in-depth learning.
There aren't a lot of *conclusions* included, but it's certainly food for thought. Dr. Zmigrod is unquestionably a very intelligent, but the text is light on the actual complex science (which is probably understandable given the difficulty of translating for laypeople reading).
Three and a half stars. It would potentially be a good choice for public or post-secondary school library acquisition, for science interested non-fiction readers, and for home reading.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
No comments:
Post a Comment