A Neuropsychological Exploration of a Society’s Ongoing Descent Into a Moral and Factual Abyss

In the United States a regime of white, Christian, patriarchal nationalists headed by a charismatic political leader with dark triad traits has leveraged emotionally charged group identities and biases to amplify moral outrage and misinformation on social media, seize control of government, and implement a malevolent agenda. Here I consider the neuropsychological foundations of this ongoing social upheaval by integrating findings from evolutionary theory and behavioral, brain imaging, brain lesion, and pharmacological studies. Neural signatures of in-group cohesion, out-group animosity and schadenfreude, religiosity, and political polarization are highlighted. The evidence suggests that important determinants of the relative impacts of group identity and biased versus critical thinking for sociopolitical decision-making are interconnected neural circuits of the frontoparietal, salience, default mode, and subcortical areas mediating anger or pleasure. When considered collectively and in light of recent research on social media algorithms, misinformation, and moral outrage this neuropsychological perspective explains how antisocial sentiments and behaviors can rapidly metastasize and cripple a nation. A better understanding of relevant neuropsychological processes at the individual and group levels may reveal novel approaches for mitigating moral and factual pathologies in societies.