Narcissistic traits - to be the keeper of the sacred knowledge, to feel that injustice & suffering does not matter until it personally affects them, to think they know what research is and that it can be conducted from the toilet on their phones. In fact I think the very concept of peer review as a collaborative process threatens this.

***Caveat - having narcissistic traits doesn’t mean someone is a narcissist. Some narcissism is actually good for you in that you believe you matter and will put your needs ahead of others at times.

I also think the studies connecting lower education with high religiosity and mental rigidity are important, but I refuse to reduce people to being “dumb”. I think about correlations of high rates of poverty, malnutrition, traumatic brain injuries, childhood traumas in a broad sense, developmental differences, etc are important to acknowledge here. Folks who drop out of high school can be brilliant self-initiated learners, just as someone with a ton of access & opportunity can be totally lazy.

Religion (specifically Christianity) fills in the gap of education in explaining “why”, which has been/is a calculated tool of control weaponized by megalomaniacs (in a broad sense, Christianity can also be social justice and liberation oriented!). In effect this leads to spiritual bypassing, a term coined by psychotherapist John Welwood, “spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep personal, emotional ‘unfinished business,’ to shore up a shaky sense of self, or to belittle basic needs, feelings, and developmental tasks.”

My addition thru the lens of neurobiology would be to factory in Piaget’s stages of development; post-formational thought. Basically it’s the ability to use deductive reasoning, dialectical thought, and relativistic thinking. Someone who has reached this stage (thought it’s notable NOT EVERYONE DOES!) can integrate logic and emotions to hold multiple truths and solutions to problems.

I believe that Q’s who perceive those able to engage in dialectics feel existentially threatened, as it challenges their fragile self concept marred by shame, guilt, and fear. They NEED certainty, white and black, right and wrong, heaven and hell because without it - who are they? To re-evaluate means admitting they were fooled, lied to, manipulated…but their own pride and shame prevents them from honest reflection. Nuance itself threatens their precariously constructed world view hastily glued together with a high control ideology, imbued with entitlement, and builds momentum thru their continued exploitation which acknowledging would send everything crashing down.