The Ideological Brain: The Radical Science of Flexible Thinking

“The Ideological Brain: The Radical Science of Flexible Thinking by Leor Zmigrod is a book that must go to the top of your ‘to be read’ pile. It is perhaps the most important book on ideology and politics in 2025.”

It’s unusual that a book on the intersection of radical political ideology and brain science can be this compelling, but it’s the must-read of the season.

Leor Zmigrod’s The Ideological Brain: The Radical Science of Flexible Thinking is indispensable for anyone who is concerned about the divisiveness and rigidity of thought expressed in politics today. It is a careful and nuanced examination of the relationship between biology, psychology, and the expression of ideology.

A research scientist with groundbreaking work in political neuroscience—how politics affects the brain—Zmigrod explains how it is that our brains are susceptible to and influenced by ideology. While there is no single gene responsible for susceptibility to radicalization, there are neurological mechanisms that seem to predispose some people to being influenced by radical ideologies.

Simply put, what we believe is reflected in our biology, specifically in our brains. Other researchers have shared findings that repetition plays a role in how we behave in the world. Zmigrod takes this research a step further, stating that “repetition of ideological rules and rituals cascades into our cells.”

Ideology is different from culture. It is based in utopian thought. There is a problem that is broken down into simple parts—us vs. them, black vs. white, rich vs. poor, native vs. immigrant, etc.—and a call to action is made to create a better world, an idealized world. Our current situation is described as horrific and dystopian while the future, if we take the prescribed actions, could be near perfect. Alternatively, the current situation could be near perfect and must be protected from dangerous others. In either case, life is seen as a fight for resources, freedom, and domination. It is a zero-sum game where winners and losers are inevitable.

Further, for those with high expressions of ideology, the ends justify the means. “. . . all actions that lead to victory are valid.” While chilling, that description of why groups act as they do can help the reader understand much of what’s happening geopolitically in the world around us.

Rigidity of thinking, often characterized by black and white approaches to complex problems, may be at the root of the hold ideology has in the brain. In a compelling explanation of her research, Zmigrod explains how individuals who express rigid thinking and ideological patterns have a gene expression that impacts how dopamine is distributed. Those who display the most rigidity have the least concentration of dopamine in the decision-making portion of the brain, the pre-frontal cortex. More dopamine is held in the mid-section of the brain, which is responsible for our instinctual responses.

Another interesting aspect of Zmigrod’s research is that neurologically, people of similar political beliefs show similar brain patterns in response to stimuli. If shown a video, people with similar ideologies will show similar brain patterns to each other in response to the video. Literally, those with right wing politics will neurologically respond similarly to the video. Those with left wing ideas will respond similarly, too. But the two groups will in a neurological sense, respond differently.

What does this mean?

Zmigrod begins to answer this question by giving a great deal of attention to children’s brains. How do our brains grow and how is it that children are so easily “brainwashed”? Her insights are chilling. While our brains “do not bow to authority with equal enthusiasm,” there are very few that will not submit if enough force is applied.

The implications of this book are vitally important and must be urgently applied to our global political situations and understandings. In the epilogue, the author makes a direct plea to scientists to stop standing by while their work is twisted to support racist and unjust ends, but to use science to critique dogma in its applications to human systems.

Understanding the biological roots of how ideology is expressed can be applied not just to politics, but to better understand how identities or diagnoses impact or hijack a person’s experience. What does it mean when one aspect of a person’s identity takes over nearly every aspect of their lives? Understanding ideology in the brain may have broad-ranging applications to health and wellbeing that are beyond the focus of this book.

Given the changing political landscape in the world today, The Ideological Brain: The Radical Science of Flexible Thinking by Leor Zmigrod is a book that must go to the top of your “to be read” pile. It is perhaps the most important book on ideology and politics in 2025.