Psychologist Linda Skitka and her colleagues at the University of Illinois at Chicago have come to an additional conclusion about why we have such trouble with conversations about politics and identity: a lot of us see these things as moral values, and those are starkly delineated in our minds. If we think something is either good or bad, moral or immoral, we’re less likely to want to talk to someone who we believe falls on the “bad” or “immoral” side; the issue at hand is not a matter of opinion to us in that case, and we assume the interaction will be unpleasant or unnecessary.
