This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta.

Most of us think of moral convictions as a good thing.

We have national parks and drunk driving laws because people in the past had moral convictions

and acted on them.

These threads of moral conviction are deeply sewn into the fabric of our nation, shaping

policy and culture across generations.

This social security measure gives at least some protection to 30 millions of our citizens

who will read direct benefits through unemployment compensation.

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union

in Eastern Europe, open this gate, tear down this wall.

But new research suggests these moral convictions can be a double-edged sword in the context of

a democracy.

When we are convinced something is morally correct, it becomes difficult for us to hear

views that clash with ours, difficult to have conversations with people who disagree

with us and difficult to make compromises.

This week on Hidden Brain, we bring you the latest in our series featuring counterintuitive

ideas about the state of the world in 2020.

As an election campaign rages around us, we ask, can our moral convictions keep us from

actually achieving our moral convictions?

There are many things about this year's US presidential election that feel unprecedented.

But this pandemic year campaign is also part of a long, through line of hotly contested

political struggles.

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