I think it all comes down to the nature of understanding, really. The education system brilliantly masks people's ability to follow logical reasoning by never once testing this ability in a way that cannot be substituted by good memory. (Mostly, to be fair, because devising a viable test of this seems to be impossible.)
In areas like politics, what we see is simply the evolutionary consequence of the minimal role played by understanding/reasoning in people's thinking processes. And to some extent things have to work this way, because it's impossible for every voter to be an expert on every issue. so if they did think about everything they'd answer "don't know" all the time and (different) special interest groups would control every vote.
no subject
I think it all comes down to the nature of understanding, really. The education system brilliantly masks people's ability to follow logical reasoning by never once testing this ability in a way that cannot be substituted by good memory. (Mostly, to be fair, because devising a viable test of this seems to be impossible.)
In areas like politics, what we see is simply the evolutionary consequence of the minimal role played by understanding/reasoning in people's thinking processes. And to some extent things have to work this way, because it's impossible for every voter to be an expert on every issue. so if they did think about everything they'd answer "don't know" all the time and (different) special interest groups would control every vote.