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Dear friend,
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One of the most fundamental problems for our society is the growing irrationality of political discourse, as demonstrated by this US election season. To address this problem, we at Intentional Insights have focused a lot of our recent attention on getting more rational thinking into politics. We have published a number of high-profile articles in prominent venues and did guest commentary for several TV and radio programs. The goal has been to highlight why and how we can have more rational political engagement, and I'm so happy we've been able to reach millions of people with our messages.
I want to express my gratitude to the many of you who have participated in various aspects of this work. InIn supporters have shared the content we create and our media appearances through their social networks, contributed their time to edit and write articles and do other volunteering activities, and most importantly made financial contributions. As a fellow volunteer and monthly donor, I want to highlight that it's the support of all of us that makes all this possible. Thank you for doing your share! And if you consider yourself an active supporters of Intentional Insights, please join our InIn Insiders Facebook group and email list to connect with other supporters.
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 Dr. Gleb Tsipursky
Co-Founder and President
Intentional Insights
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P.S.: To ensure that we can keep doing this work, please join me in making a tax deductible gift today.
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TV Commentary
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So much of what influences our perceptions of political discourse is not in the content of what politicians say, but how they say it and what they leave out. And pundits miss out this important information when they focus solely on whether politicians are saying the truth. To be rational when evaluating political discourse, we need to be aware of and watch out for how politicians try to manipulate us through appealing to our emotions.
We appeared on affiliates of ABC and Fox to provide commentary after each of the three presidential debates to help viewers understand how the two candidates tried to manipulate us, and to provide rational thinking tools for noticing and resisting such manipulation.
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| Commentary on the first presidential debate on an affiliate of ABC in Columbus Ohio. |
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| Commentary on the second presidential debate on an affiliate Fox, Columbus, Ohio. |
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| Commentary on the third presidential debate on an affiliate of Fox, Columbus, Ohio. |
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| Radio Interviews |
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Another common reason for irrational political decisions is our own biased thinking. While this is not a popular message, it's crucial for helping our society become less irrational in its political decision-making.
We focused on conveying that message in interviews with KGO radio in San Francisco and KLRD radio in Dallas. In interviews with NPR and Sunny 95 we focused on topics similar to the ones we covered on TV, about how candidates try to manipulate us and how to protect against that.
The interview we are most proud of is the one with 700 WLW, a conservative talk station, where we had our first hostile, debate-style interview about which presidential candidate will make us safer. Most of our existing audience is libertarian or liberal, and it was exciting to reach out to a more conservative demographic with rational thinking messages. |
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What We Can Learn About Public Speaking From The Presidential Debates
Interview on NPR in Madison, Wisconsin.
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How Biased Thinking Can Cause Us To Misinterpret Political Discourse
Interview on KGO 810 in San Francisco, California.
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Which Candidate Will Make America Safer?
Interview on 700 WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio. |
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Emotional Intelligence and Presidential Election
Interview on Sunny 95 in Columbus, Ohio.
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Dealing with Irrational Campaign Rhetoric
Interview on KRLD NewsRadio 1080 in Dallas, Texas.
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| Articles |
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Most of our articles covered the same topics as our radio and TV appearances. In fact, it was our articles that paved the way for these appearances, since producers got in touch with us after reading them.
We also wrote about some topics not covered in radio and TV interviews. One of them is Hillary Clinton's limited ability to appeal to emotions of anger and fear due to the cultural norms for emotional expression for women in our society. Another important message is that voters are not inherently irrational, and that this is a myth perpetrated by pundits and analysts. In fact, voters can grow more rational and make wise and effective decisions by using simple decision-making strategies.
Finally, the piece we are most happy about was published in TIME, a prominent news site that receives 65 million visitors per month. It describes how people tend to vastly underestimate the actual impact of their vote, which is worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. So make sure to vote, and encourage others to vote by sharing this article with your friends and on your social media!
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Your Vote May Be Worth Millions!
How much is your vote really worth?
This article was originally published in TIME. |
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The Myth of the Irrational Voter
We can take steps to vote more rationally.
This article was originally published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. |
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How Our Thinking Errors Cause Us To Misinterpret Politics
We can have more rational politics if we focus on addressing typical thinking errors that politicians use to manipulate us.
This article was originally published in The Conversation, and also appeared in Salon and The Dallas Morning News.
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Trump and Clinton Debate Strategies That Can Make Anyone a Better Public Speaker
Use emotional intelligence to be a better public speaker!
This article was originally published in The Conversation.
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| The Gender Gap in the Presidential Debate
How might social gender norms of emotional expression influence perceptions of debate performance?
This article was originally published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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Which Candidate Will Make America Safer?
Both candidates claim to make us safer - who will truly do so?
This article was also published in Psychology Today. It was co-written by Dr. Gleb Tsipursky and Blake Page, Ohio Field Director for VoteVets.
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| Join Us! |
You can be a part of our work to promote rational thinking in several ways:
Volunteer.
Complete this online form, and we will contact you to discuss opportunities that would fit your interests and skills.
Donate.
Make a monthly or one-time tax deductible gift.
Connect.
Join the InIn Insiders Facebook group and email list to connect with other supporters around the world.
If you have any questions or comments about Intentional Insights, you can email us or share your comments anonymously here. |
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