History is full of grand causes for conflict: rival empires, contested borders, the clash of civilizations. And then there’s Zurich in the 16th century, where Catholics and Protestants found themselves squaring off over… a sausage. Yes, a plump, greasy, perfectly ordinary wurst managed to become the spark for sectarian strife. If it sounds ridiculous, that’s […]
We’re the good guys. That’s what we’ve always told ourselves. During fascism, “we weren’t like the Germans.” When it comes to the mafia, “we’re not like the Sicilians.” The myth of the good Italian has followed us for nearly a century. But every myth has its cost. Today, while the mafia evolves, infiltrates, and thrives, […]
The availability heuristic is a very powerful cognitive bias that influences the perception of political threats. It leads individuals to overestimate the probability of events by reflecting on how easily they can remember similar occurrences. Political leaders, when they manipulate this psychological process with messages intended to instill fear, can have an immense impact on […]
B.BIAS 