Two Minds Blog

In the wake of 2020's contentious U.S. elections, people on both sides of the aisle are asking themselves, "how could that have happened?" We wonder how our fellow Americans could see things so differently, and many people have expressed feelings of hurt or betrayal about those disagreements. In the worst examples, people demonize their fellow Americans, claim the other side is winning through dishonest means, or toss around labels like "racist" or "communist" that create more animosity than clarity. (It's always more productive to talk about someone's behavior and its impact than about their character). It's interesting that both sides arrived at November 3rd expecting a landslide victory, and both sides were denied the satisfaction. In that way the 2020 election shows what we really are: a people deeply divided, who have a hard time even listening to each other's perspectives, who much too often want it to be "my way or the hig...

  This week we had a time change, which can be a surprisingly stressful event. In 2020 it might not have seemed so different from our everyday experience: Many people complain that it's hard to know what day it is during the coronavirus pandemic. For some people, the lack of a clear sense of time contributes to a serious decline in mental health. People express particular regret over the pandemic's elimination or modification of milestone events like holidays, graduations, and vacations. We miss the usual spring or fall festivals, the first or last day of school, the week that we always spend with our family at the lake. Yet the days and seasons proceed at their usual rate in 2020. Why, then, do we feel so outside of time? In the book Empires of Time: Calendars, Clocks, and Cultures , sociologist Anthony Aveni summarizes some of the factors that affect people's subjective sense of time. The brain's Intuitive system includes several internal "clocks" that use s...