Brainwashing gets increasingly easy the younger the subject is. Children, in particular, have an evolutionary need to automatically trust adults and what adults tell them, as they don’t yet have the cognitive tools to handle the world around them. Trusting adults have been baked into that part of childhood development because, historically speaking, it gave a distinct evolutionary advantage. Those children that listened to adults had a much stronger probability of surviving until adulthood.
It’s why religions so strongly proselytize the young – get them young, get them for life.
The Socratic Method tends to be effective in many cases so long as the other person remains open to reason and logic, especially the requirement for evidence.
Agreed. And yet there are plenty of Gen Z and Gen Alpha religous zealots.
How does that contradict what OP said? Gen alpha is literally all kids and teens, even.
Brainwashing gets increasingly easy the younger the subject is. Children, in particular, have an evolutionary need to automatically trust adults and what adults tell them, as they don’t yet have the cognitive tools to handle the world around them. Trusting adults have been baked into that part of childhood development because, historically speaking, it gave a distinct evolutionary advantage. Those children that listened to adults had a much stronger probability of surviving until adulthood.
It’s why religions so strongly proselytize the young – get them young, get them for life.
I wonder what the most effective way to de-radicalize these individuals is.
The Socratic Method tends to be effective in many cases so long as the other person remains open to reason and logic, especially the requirement for evidence.