Open and closed mind concepts only map the extremes of belief
Evidence
Social psychologists should refocus their theories and methods on exploring the forms and mechanisms of moral evaluation placed by various cultures on some of their practices, especially when those practices ensure the moral exclusion of a certain group of people. The notions of authoritarian and democratic personality, the ‘open’ and ‘closed’ mind, are notions that map only the extremes of a social continuum of beliefs. It is the struggle for describing the various psychological characteristics of the ‘vast middle’ that characterizes much of the contemporary social psychology of racism. — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 347
Categorization
- SEED: Angles toward the ‘vast middle’ — a name for the ordinary people who carry prejudice without extremism — plausible essay thread on how moral exclusion is sustained by mainstream not fringe actors.