By Alex Henderson
Psychologist/author Leor Zmigrod is known for her expertise on extremism and rigid mindsets — a topic she explores in her book, “The Ideological Brain: The Radical Science of Flexible Thinking.”
In an interview with Big Think published on July 9, Zmigrod delves into the traits of rigid thinkers. And she lays out “four principal factors that correlate with someone holding extreme ideological beliefs.”
The factors are (1) “Cognitive rigidity,” (2) “emotional volatility,” (3) “the amygdala,” and (4) “prefrontal cortex.”
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Zmigrod told Big Think, “Cognitive rigidity is the tendency to see the world in a really binary way. It’s where you really struggle to adapt to change, and you tend to think along one mental track rather than switching between different modes of thinking.”
According to Zmigrod, there are many ways to test for “cognitive rigidity.” But her favorite involves a Coke bottle.
Big Think explains,