Podcast Summary:

The 404 Media Podcast – "How Identity Literally Changes What You See" (with Samuel Bagg)

Date: February 2, 2026
Host: 404 Media
Guest: Samuel Bagg, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of South Carolina

Episode Overview

This episode features a deep-dive conversation between the 404 Media team and political scientist Samuel Bagg, centered on Bagg’s essay, “The Problem is Epistemic. The Solution is Not.” The discussion explores how social identity fundamentally shapes not only our beliefs but even our perception of reality itself—impacting everything from political divides to the way we interpret videos of controversial events.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What Is Social Identity and Why Does It Matter?

[04:11 – 07:47]

• Definition: Social identity is any group affiliation people feel—race, gender, religion, region, profession, or even something as arbitrary as being assigned to "the blue team" or "red team" in a study.
• Influence on Perception: These affiliations, even when randomly assigned, quickly shape trust, belief, and perception.
  • "Even if you and I have different identities, we might see the same thing and literally perceive different things about it." — Samuel Bagg [06:47]
• Multilayered: We all hold multiple, overlapping identities that change in salience depending on the context.
• Cognitive Impact: Social identities don't just bias our thoughts but determine what facts or arguments we find convincing, how we remember information, and even what we physically see or hear.

2. Experimental Evidence: How Do We Know This?

[08:44 – 11:35]

• Survey Experiments: Studies manipulate cues (like a flag or website branding) to test whether people remember information or trust sources associated with their in-group.
• Neuroscience Connection: Neuroimaging shows different brain regions activate depending on the social identities in play when processing information.
  • "Depending on whether you think the news source is coming from somebody from an identity group that you affiliate with, that is going to color not just whether you trust it, but also literally what you remember from it." — Samuel Bagg [09:45]

3. Institutions, Trust, and the Role of Social Identity

[12:54 – 17:02, 21:49 – 25:50]

• Institutional Checks: Journalism, science, and law include feedback and correction systems to minimize individual bias, but these systems themselves are not immune to group identity effects.
  • "It's not that people don't trust media. They don't trust certain media, they trust other media instead." — Samuel Bagg [22:15]
• Group Identity and Trust: Most people base which institutions to trust on group membership signals rather than purely on facts.
  • "Our perception is... colored by the prior commitments that we have, including social identities." — Samuel Bagg [27:54]

4. The Limits of Fact-Checking and Media Literacy

[33:45 – 38:01]

• Partial Solution: While fact-checking, media literacy, and rational debate matter, they are never enough. People's identities scaffold which facts they accept.
  • "The effectiveness of those strategies is mediated... by whether they are pursued in tandem with other sorts of strategies [including identity-based strategies]." — Samuel Bagg [34:19]

5. Identity Work and Democracy

[38:01 – 44:20]

• Changing Identities: It’s possible (and routine in politics) to shift which identities people emphasize, but such changes can raise moral concerns.
  • "Any political strategy is going to have some element where it's [affecting identity], even if it's not implicit." — Samuel Bagg [40:41]
• Moral Dilemmas: Appeals to national (or other) identities can be double-edged, sometimes oversimplifying or even distorting reality for strategic purposes.
  • "At least in some circumstances, the kind of democratic benefits of that kind of claim can outweigh the problems of what's essentially a kind of deception." — Samuel Bagg [43:10]

6. Application: The ICE Shooting Video & Divergent Realities

[25:50 – 33:45]

• Case Study: Analysis of public reaction to controversial video evidence (ICE agent shooting Good) illustrates how identities shape not just opinions but what viewers actually "see."
  • "There isn't just one thing that those videos show objectively, right? All we have is the things that we perceive." — Samuel Bagg [27:51]
  • "If you have an institution... but all the participants in that institution share a certain set of a certain kind of perspective, then it's... going to miss certain types of errors." — Samuel Bagg [32:00]
• Bias Awareness: Acknowledging one’s own bias is necessary, but not sufficient.
  • "Everybody has a perspective, and everybody tends to underestimate the degree to which that perspective colors the way that they perceive the world." — Samuel Bagg [31:05]

7. The "Scary" Solutions: Identity-Oriented Strategies

[37:13 – 38:50]

• Identity Work: Real democratic improvement demands reshaping the landscape of social identity—not just correcting knowledge gaps.
  • "Anything we can do in terms of shifting identities in that way is... going to be necessary for convincing the whole... society." — Samuel Bagg [36:20]
• Practical Examples: Political campaigns, coalitions, or labor organizing can shift identities, but must do so transparently and conscientiously.

8. Future Directions: Organizing for Democratic Power

[44:56 – 48:19]

• Collective Institutions: Labor unions and political parties can organize countervailing power and healthier epistemic communities—if they avoid replicating groupthink or harmful hierarchies.
  • "The question of the next decade... is what the Democratic Party does, how it structures itself and mobilizes people... to change the rules of the game." — Samuel Bagg [47:50]

Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• "Even if you and I have different identities, we might see the same thing and literally perceive different things about it."
  – Samuel Bagg [06:47]

• "Our perception is before we can access it... colored by the prior commitments that we have, including social identities."
  – Samuel Bagg [27:54]

• "It's not that people don't trust media. They don't trust certain media, they trust other media instead."
  – Samuel Bagg [22:15]

• "The effectiveness of those strategies [fact-checking, media literacy]... will never ever be sufficient."
  – Samuel Bagg [34:19]

• "We don't have the choice of whether to do [identity work] or not. So the question is not whether to do it, but how."
  – Samuel Bagg [40:41]

• "Everybody has a perspective, and everybody tends to underestimate the degree to which that perspective colors the way that they perceive the world."
  – Samuel Bagg [31:05]

• "If you have an institution... but all the participants... share a certain kind of perspective, then... it's going to miss certain types of errors."
  – Samuel Bagg [32:00]

Timestamps for Significant Segments

• 00:04–03:08: Host introduces the core problem: democracy’s epistemic crisis and Bagg’s essay.
• 04:11–07:47: Defining social identity and its fundamental role in perception and belief.
• 08:44–11:35: Experimental evidence for identity-based filtering of knowledge.
• 12:54–17:02: How institutions check (and are limited by) identity-based biases.
• 21:49–25:50: How group identity drives trust and mistrust of institutions.
• 25:50–33:45: Application to ICE shooting video; divergence in perception explained.
• 33:45–38:01: Solutions: why fact-checking and media literacy cannot be the full answer.
• 38:01–44:20: Identity work in politics; moral and strategic trade-offs.
• 44:56–48:19: Bagg’s future research directions: collective organizations and democratic structure.

Conclusion

This episode delivers a nuanced, empirically anchored perspective on why democratic societies fracture over shared realities and what deeper identity-based solutions might look like. Through the lens of political science and lived political events, Samuel Bagg explains why addressing collective identities—and not just individual knowledge—is central to sustaining healthy democracy.

Recommended further reading: Samuel Bagg’s essay (linked in the show notes) and his forthcoming book (contact him directly for a copy if interested).