A neuroscientist explains why some Republicans torpedoed Jim Jordan and are defying Trump

Right now, there is an internal war raging inside the Republican Party that is an ideological battle for its heart and soul.

Progressives should be optimistic about this internal strife, and not just because it signifies a divided right-wing going into the coming presidential election. The failure of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) — a man known as a “hardline conservative agitator” and a Trump loyalist — to claim the House speaker position was the result of a Republican resistance to Jordan’s MAGA philosophy. The moderate wing of the party took a principled stance that risked their careers, and they emerged victorious.

Of course, the downside is that we now find ourselves without a speaker of the House. So while swaths of the world from Ukraine to Israel and Gaza are in utter chaos, our legislative branch is completely dysfunctional. All that aside, this scenario does offer progressives a glimmer of hope, and also raises a question: Why the sudden backbone from these Republicans? What is the psychology underlying their defiance, and how can we capitalize on this effort to curb ring-wing extremism and limit Trump’s political influence?

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The social psychology theory known as Terror Management Theory (TMT) has an answer to that. According to this theory, humans have an awareness of their own mortality that creates deep existential terror. We deal with this persistent fear by adopting cultural worldviews — religions, national identities, political ideologies — which infuse our lives with meaning and purpose. By becoming part of an idea and a movement that is larger than oneself, that will outlive the individual, we manage our existential terror.

If this is true, things that remind us of our mortality or create existential terror will cause people to cling more strongly to their cultural worldviews. When this happens, they will also tend to side with those who share their worldview and more fiercely oppose those that appear against it.

If we do indeed adopt cultural worldviews to curb a fear of death — as Terror Management Theory posits — then perceived threats to our worldview should also prompt us to strengthen faith in our worldviews and become more tribal.

An interesting experiment from 1998, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, illustrates this phenomenon. The experimenters asked participants to write about either their own death or a control topic and then presented them with a target person who either disparaged their political views or did not. Afterward, they gave them the opportunity to choose the amount of hot sauce the offender must consume. As predicted, participants who were made fearful by the writing exercise allocated significantly more hot sauce to the worldview-threatening target.

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So, how does Terror Management Theory shed light on the resistance within the Republican party against figures such as Jordan and Trump?

The nomination of the previous House speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy, who is known as more of a pragmatic legislator than an ideologue, showed where the majority stood. However, a rebellion led by hardline conservatives and Trump loyalists ousted McCarthy, seeking a more extreme replacement. With the headline, “McCarthy became the latest victim of Trump’s GOP revolution,” a CNN journalist wrote:

“A party that once defined conservatism as preserving a traditional sense of steadiness and strength has evolved over the last three decades into a haven for chaos agents, stunt politics and a perpetual ideological revolution that keeps driving it to new extremes.”

Jordan’s alignment with Trump and Trump’s 2020 election denial, as well as his hardline conservative stances and unwillingness to compromise, epitomizes the radical transformation of the Republican Party.

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Veteran Republicans have long championed a distinct conservative worldview that emphasizes traditional American principles and practicality. For enough U.S. House members within the party, the politics and posturing of figures such as Trump and Jordan appeared to be a sharp departure from these deeply-held convictions, at least within the context of the House speaker’s saga. This opposition isn’t merely political or strategic — it's fundamentally about the preservation of the core values and principles that have been central to the Republican identity for decades.

The perceived existential threat to their traditional worldview posed by the radical movement, coupled with the very real threat to their political careers, triggered the worldview-defense response described by Terror Management Theory.

By opposing Jordan, these Republicans were reinforcing their worldview, their protective buffer against existential threats. When the worldview defense was triggered, the dynamics of group behavior and tribalism described by Terror Management Theory also emerged. Actions threatening a group’s core beliefs will prompt members of that group to bind together and remain true to their ideals.

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After voting against Jordan, the members of the resistance received threats from Jordan supporters, who were almost all certainly Trump supporters, which increased the intensity of the overall perceived threat, further strengthening the worldview-threat response. Articles report that these Republicans "dug in their heels" after facing aggression, as Terror Management Theory would predict.

So, the story of Jim Jordan’s failed bid for speaker of the House teaches us a lot about the psychological and neural factors that at certain times can drive individuals to put the more traditional principles of their party and personal convictions above personal gain. This intriguing dynamic of values against vested interests offers valuable insights into how extremist political movements emerge and are then countered by a wave of resistance that maintains a balanced equilibrium.

This war going on within the Republican Party may symbolize a change in direction of the party, but only time will tell. Nine new speaker candidates emerged over the weekend, with only two of them having voted to certify the 2020 presidential election. House Minority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) tried to win the gavel first and flamed out before even standing for an official vote. Others, including Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), will soon try their luck.

In the meantime, progressives should be reminded of the old adage "The enemy of your enemy is your friend." Maybe progressives can find common ground with moderate Republicans on shared values and principles, bridging divides that have polarized the nation and building a coalition against Trump for the 2024 election.

Bobby Azarian is a cognitive neuroscientist and the author of the book The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity. He is also a blogger for Psychology Today and the creator of the Substack Road to Omega. Follow him on X and Instagram @BobbyAzarian.