The thesis of theoretical physicist Leonard Mlodinow’s book Subliminal, is that the “new unconscious” rules our behavior. People will make major decisions based on the stories they’ve collected even when those decisions are clearly not in their self-interest. They stay in their ideological lane even when it hurts them.

This doesn’t sound very hopeful, does it?

But it does line up with our experience. We can’t understand how people can behave and think the way they do. It amazes us and we judge them.