Episode Details

Ken DeMarree studies how opinion science applies how we see ourselves. He’s an associate professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo. In our conversation, we talk about how opinion science can be used to understand things like self-esteem, how people sometimes desire opinions they currently disagree with, and how some people just tend to be pretty confident in their views.

Things we mention in this episode:

• California’s Self-Esteem Task Force (Guardian; NYT; The Cut)
• The psychology of strong opinions can help us understand how people see themselves (DeMarree et al., 2007)
• More “accessible” self-esteem is more durable and impactful (DeMarree et al., 2010)
• Seeing yourself in both positive and negative ways makes your self-esteem more susceptible to influence (DeMarree et al., 2011)
• When we want an opinion we don’t already have, it makes us conflicted (DeMarree et al., 2014; 2017)
• Some people just tend to be more confident in their views than others (DeMarree et al., 2020)

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For a transcript of this episode, visit: http://opinionsciencepodcast.com/episode/opinions-of-ourselves-with-ken-demarree/

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