Dr. David Eagleman

So they toss the coin.

They find out what they are.

We give them a wristband that reminds them that they're Justinian or Augustinian.

Then they go in the scanner and they see Justinian or Augustinian hands getting stabbed.

And it turns out they have a bigger response predicated on their team.

Completely arbitrary label.

It doesn't mean anything.

But this is how we are wired very much – very strongly for in-groups and out-groups.

Obviously, this is a real problem for everything we're witnessing around us.

That's interesting.

I don't know.

I don't think anyone's run that experiment to my knowledge.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a really interesting point.

To my knowledge, no one has done that experiment.

And in a sense, it's because this issue of when something bad happens to someone, we naturally have an empathic response if it's a stranger.

Look at the issue of, I don't know, let's say...

Some older gentleman gets his nose broken because someone attacks him outdoors at a park.

You would feel empathy for that.

But now if I tell you, oh, look, he was at a Democrat rally or a Republican rally, depending on your perspective on the world, you might have differential empathy predicated on how strongly you feel on one team or the other.