Hardwiring inside individuals (almost exclusively in the brain) has been studied extensively in psychological science, but hardwiring outside individuals has received scant attention. Hardwiring outside individuals consists of the total ways of life of human beings, including the built environment, societal organization, and formal institutions, as well as informal culture, narratives, and all form of communications, leader–follower relations, and cultural carriers. As discussed in this chapter, this external hardwiring is already present when the individual comes into this world, and it continues (with some degree of change) after the individual has departed. Formal hardwiring such as blackletter law and constitutions often continue over centuries, with little change in key areas – for example, through originalist interpretations of constitutions. When revolutionary constitutions are introduced, there is often a huge gap between the aspirations of the constitution and the behavior of the population, which tends to continue as before. Cultural carriers are an important part of external hardwiring, sustaining continuity

Intergral to the neglect of group and intergroup relations in mainstream psychology is the almost complete absence of research on the psychology of revolution. From the perspective of the poor, the psychology of revolution is an important topic because it relates to a possible path for improving the lives of the masses. However, a psychological assessment of revolutions reveals that in most cases they bring about a change in rulers, but not a change in the system of government or end group-based inequalities in society. In many cases, revolutions against a dictatorship result in one dictator being replaced by another, as has happened in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in Russia, China, Iran, the Arab Spring countries and many other cases. The main reason for revolutions not leading to foundational changes in justice and inequality is limitations in political plasticity, how much and how fast political behavior can change. Political plasticity is shaped by hard-wiring both inside and outside individuals, with hard wiring outside individuals often being the most important factor. Political plasticity is very limited in domains such as leader-follower relations. These limitations in political plasticity can be overcome through extensive and in-depth programs of civic education.