Why your political discussions go nowhere | Robb Willer | TEDxMarin
-
0:11 - 0:14So you probably have the sense,
as most people do, -
0:14 - 0:18that polarization
is getting worse in our country, -
0:18 - 0:22that the divide
between the left and the right -
0:22 - 0:25is as bad as it's been
in really any of our lifetimes. -
0:25 - 0:30But you might also reasonably wonder
if research backs up your intuition. -
0:31 - 0:36And in a nutshell,
the answer is sadly yes. -
0:36 - 0:37(Laughter)
-
0:38 - 0:40In study after study, we find
-
0:40 - 0:43that liberals and conservatives
have grown further apart. -
0:44 - 0:49They increasingly wall themselves off
in these ideological silos, -
0:49 - 0:53consuming different news,
talking only to like-minded others -
0:53 - 0:56and more and more choosing
to live in different parts of the country. -
0:58 - 1:01And I think that
most alarming of all of it -
1:01 - 1:05is seeing this rising
animosity on both sides. -
1:05 - 1:07Liberals and conservatives,
-
1:07 - 1:09Democrats and Republicans,
-
1:09 - 1:12more and more they just
don't like one another. -
1:13 - 1:15You see it in many different ways.
-
1:15 - 1:19They don't want to befriend one another.
They don't want to date one another. -
1:19 - 1:22If they do, if they find out,
they find each other less attractive, -
1:22 - 1:25and they more and more don't want
their children to marry someone -
1:25 - 1:27who supports the other party,
-
1:27 - 1:29a particularly shocking statistic.
-
1:29 - 1:32You know, in my lab,
the students that I work with, -
1:32 - 1:34we're talking about some social pattern --
-
1:34 - 1:38I'm a movie buff, and so I'm often like,
-
1:38 - 1:40what kind of movie are we in here
with this pattern? -
1:41 - 1:44So what kind of movie are we in
with political polarization? -
1:45 - 1:47Well, it could be a disaster movie.
-
1:48 - 1:50It certainly seems like a disaster.
-
1:50 - 1:52Could be a war movie.
-
1:53 - 1:54Also fits.
-
1:55 - 1:59But what I keep thinking is that
we're in a zombie apocalypse movie. -
1:59 - 2:00(Laughter)
-
2:00 - 2:03Right? You know the kind.
-
2:03 - 2:05There's people wandering around in packs,
-
2:05 - 2:07not thinking for themselves,
-
2:07 - 2:09seized by this mob mentality,
-
2:09 - 2:12trying to spread their disease
and destroy society. -
2:13 - 2:17And if you're like me,
and you're a college-educated liberal -- -
2:17 - 2:20and statistically, I'm guessing,
the majority of you ... -
2:20 - 2:23(Laughter)
-
2:23 - 2:24are exactly that.
-
2:24 - 2:26(Laughter)
-
2:26 - 2:28And you probably think, as I do,
-
2:28 - 2:31that you're the good guy
in the zombie apocalypse movie, -
2:31 - 2:35and all this hate and polarization,
it's being propagated by the other people, -
2:35 - 2:36the conservatives.
-
2:38 - 2:40We're Brad Pitt, right?
-
2:40 - 2:43Free-thinking, righteous,
-
2:43 - 2:45just trying to hold on
to what we hold dear, -
2:45 - 2:49you know, not foot soldiers
in the army of the undead. -
2:49 - 2:50Not that.
-
2:50 - 2:52Never that.
-
2:52 - 2:54But here's the thing:
-
2:54 - 2:57what movie do you suppose
they think they're in? -
2:58 - 2:59Right?
-
2:59 - 3:02Well, they absolutely think
that they're the good guys -
3:02 - 3:04in the zombie apocalypse movie. Right?
-
3:04 - 3:07And you'd better believe
that they think that they're Brad Pitt -
3:07 - 3:09and that we, we are the zombies.
-
3:11 - 3:14And who's to say that they're wrong?
-
3:15 - 3:19Look, they click on stupid internet links
that say stuff like that ... -
3:19 - 3:22We click on stupid internet links
that say stuff like this. -
3:23 - 3:28(Laughter)
-
3:28 - 3:31They complain about living near us,
-
3:31 - 3:33having to work with us,
-
3:33 - 3:35even eating Thanksgiving dinner with us.
-
3:36 - 3:38And we do all those same things.
-
3:38 - 3:39Right?
-
3:40 - 3:41Look, it's true.
-
3:41 - 3:43The studies that I see on polarization
-
3:43 - 3:45show that conservatives
look a little bit worse. -
3:45 - 3:47They look a little bit angrier,
-
3:47 - 3:49a little more averse to compromise.
-
3:49 - 3:52And we could tell ourselves that means
that this is not our problem. -
3:52 - 3:54That it's them doing it.
-
3:55 - 3:57But I think that would be taking
the easy way out. -
3:57 - 4:00I think that the truth
is that we're all a part of this. -
4:01 - 4:04And the good side of that
is that we can be a part of the solution. -
4:05 - 4:07So what are we going to do?
-
4:08 - 4:12What can we do to chip away
at polarization in everyday life? -
4:12 - 4:16What could we do to connect with
and communicate with -
4:16 - 4:18our political counterparts?
-
4:18 - 4:22Well, these were exactly the questions
that I and my colleague Matt Feinberg -
4:22 - 4:24became fascinated with a few years ago,
-
4:24 - 4:26and we started
doing research on this topic. -
4:27 - 4:30And one of the first things
that we discovered -
4:30 - 4:34that I think is really helpful
for understanding polarization -
4:34 - 4:35is to understand
-
4:35 - 4:40that the political divide in our country
is undergirded by a deeper moral divide. -
4:40 - 4:44So one of the most robust findings
in the history of political psychology -
4:44 - 4:48is this pattern identified
by Jon Haidt and Jesse Graham, -
4:48 - 4:49psychologists,
-
4:49 - 4:53that liberals and conservatives
tend to endorse different values -
4:53 - 4:55to different degrees.
-
4:55 - 5:01So for example, we find that liberals
tend to endorse values like equality -
5:01 - 5:04and fairness and care
and protection from harm -
5:04 - 5:06more than conservatives do,
-
5:06 - 5:12and conservatives tend to endorse
values like loyalty, patriotism, -
5:12 - 5:15respect for authority and moral purity
-
5:15 - 5:17more than liberals do.
-
5:18 - 5:22And Matt and I were thinking
that maybe this moral divide -
5:22 - 5:26might be helpful
for understanding how it is -
5:26 - 5:28that liberals and conservatives
talk to one another -
5:28 - 5:30and why they so often
seem to talk past one another -
5:30 - 5:32when they do.
-
5:32 - 5:34So we conducted a study
-
5:34 - 5:37where we recruited liberals to a study
-
5:37 - 5:39where they were supposed
to write a persuasive essay -
5:39 - 5:44that would be compelling to a conservative
in support of same-sex marriage. -
5:44 - 5:48And what we found was that liberals
tended to make arguments -
5:48 - 5:52in terms of the liberal moral values
of equality and fairness. -
5:52 - 5:53So they said things like
-
5:54 - 5:57"everyone should have the right
to love whoever they choose," -
5:57 - 6:00and they -- "they" being gay Americans --
-
6:00 - 6:03"deserve the same equal rights
as other Americans." -
6:03 - 6:07Overall, we found
that 69 percent of liberals -
6:07 - 6:12invoked one of the more liberal
moral values in constructing their essay, -
6:12 - 6:16and only nine percent invoked
one of the more conservative moral values, -
6:16 - 6:19even though they were supposed
to be trying to persuade conservatives. -
6:19 - 6:23And when we studied conservatives
and had them make persuasive arguments -
6:23 - 6:26in support of making English
the official language of the US, -
6:26 - 6:29a classically conservative
political position, -
6:29 - 6:31we found that they weren't
much better at this. -
6:31 - 6:3359 percent of them made arguments
-
6:33 - 6:36in terms of one of the more
conservative moral values, -
6:36 - 6:38and just eight percent
invoked a liberal moral value, -
6:38 - 6:41even though they were supposed
to be targeting liberals for persuasion. -
6:42 - 6:46Now, you can see right away
why we're in trouble here. Right? -
6:47 - 6:51People's moral values,
they're their most deeply held beliefs. -
6:51 - 6:54People are willing
to fight and die for their values. -
6:55 - 6:57Why are they going to give that up
just to agree with you -
6:57 - 7:01on something that they don't particularly
want to agree with you on anyway? -
7:01 - 7:04If that persuasive appeal that
you're making to your Republican uncle -
7:04 - 7:07means that he doesn't
just have to change his view, -
7:07 - 7:09he's got to change
his underlying values too, -
7:09 - 7:10that's not going to go very far.
-
7:11 - 7:12So what would work better?
-
7:13 - 7:17Well, we believe it's a technique
that we call moral reframing, -
7:17 - 7:20and we've studied it
in a series of experiments. -
7:20 - 7:22In one of these experiments,
-
7:22 - 7:25we recruited liberals
and conservatives to a study -
7:25 - 7:27where they read one of three essays
-
7:27 - 7:30before having their environmental
attitudes surveyed. -
7:31 - 7:32And the first of these essays
-
7:32 - 7:35was a relatively conventional
proenvironmental essay -
7:36 - 7:40that invoked the liberal values
of care and protection from harm. -
7:40 - 7:42It said things like
"in many important ways -
7:42 - 7:45we are causing real harm
to the places we live in," -
7:45 - 7:48and "it is essential
that we take steps now -
7:48 - 7:51to prevent further destruction
from being done to our Earth." -
7:52 - 7:53Another group of participants
-
7:53 - 7:55were assigned to read
a really different essay -
7:55 - 8:00that was designed to tap into
the conservative value of moral purity. -
8:00 - 8:02It was a proenvironmental essay as well,
-
8:02 - 8:03and it said things like
-
8:04 - 8:08"keeping our forests, drinking water,
and skies pure is of vital importance." -
8:09 - 8:10"We should regard the pollution
-
8:10 - 8:12of the places we live in
to be disgusting." -
8:13 - 8:15And "reducing pollution
can help us preserve -
8:15 - 8:18what is pure and beautiful
about the places we live." -
8:19 - 8:21And then we had a third group
-
8:21 - 8:23that were assigned
to read just a nonpolitical essay. -
8:23 - 8:26It was just a comparison group
so we could get a baseline. -
8:26 - 8:28And what we found when we surveyed people
-
8:28 - 8:30about their environmental
attitudes afterwards, -
8:30 - 8:33we found that liberals,
it didn't matter what essay they read. -
8:33 - 8:36They tended to have highly
proenvironmental attitudes regardless. -
8:36 - 8:39Liberals are on board
for environmental protection. -
8:39 - 8:40Conservatives, however,
-
8:40 - 8:45were significantly more supportive
of progressive environmental policies -
8:45 - 8:46and environmental protection
-
8:46 - 8:48if they had read the moral purity essay
-
8:48 - 8:51than if they read
one of the other two essays. -
8:52 - 8:55We even found that conservatives
who read the moral purity essay -
8:55 - 8:58were significantly more likely to say
that they believed in global warming -
8:58 - 9:00and were concerned about global warming,
-
9:00 - 9:03even though this essay
didn't even mention global warming. -
9:03 - 9:06That's just a related environmental issue.
-
9:06 - 9:09But that's how robust
this moral reframing effect was. -
9:10 - 9:13And we've studied this on a whole slew
of different political issues. -
9:13 - 9:17So if you want to move conservatives
-
9:17 - 9:20on issues like same-sex marriage
or national health insurance, -
9:20 - 9:24it helps to tie these liberal
political issues to conservative values -
9:24 - 9:25like patriotism and moral purity.
-
9:26 - 9:28And we studied it the other way too.
-
9:28 - 9:32If you want to move liberals
to the right on conservative policy issues -
9:32 - 9:36like military spending and making English
the official language of the US, -
9:36 - 9:38you're going to be more persuasive
-
9:38 - 9:42if you tie those conservative
policy issues to liberal moral values -
9:42 - 9:43like equality and fairness.
-
9:45 - 9:48All these studies
have the same clear message: -
9:48 - 9:51if you want to persuade
someone on some policy, -
9:51 - 9:54it's helpful to connect that policy
to their underlying moral values. -
9:56 - 9:59And when you say it like that,
it seems really obvious. Right? -
9:59 - 10:01Like, why did we come here tonight?
-
10:01 - 10:02Why --
-
10:02 - 10:04(Laughter)
-
10:04 - 10:06It's incredibly intuitive.
-
10:07 - 10:11And even though it is,
it's something we really struggle to do. -
10:11 - 10:15You know, it turns out that when we go
to persuade somebody on a political issue, -
10:15 - 10:17we talk like we're speaking into a mirror.
-
10:17 - 10:22We don't persuade so much
as we rehearse our own reasons -
10:22 - 10:25for why we believe
some sort of political position. -
10:25 - 10:27But, speaking as a liberal,
-
10:27 - 10:30I believe that we're going to need
a whole new set of arguments, -
10:30 - 10:32if we're going to move
the next wave of people -
10:32 - 10:37on critical issues like climate change,
immigration and inequality. -
10:37 - 10:40And to come up with those arguments,
-
10:40 - 10:41we're going to have to take the time
-
10:42 - 10:44to really listen
to our conservative counterparts, -
10:44 - 10:47to understand what they value,
-
10:47 - 10:52and then creatively think about
why they should come to agree with us, -
10:53 - 10:56and in a way that doesn't
involve them having to sacrifice -
10:56 - 10:58the things that they hold most dear.
-
10:59 - 11:03We kept saying, when we were designing
these reframed moral arguments, -
11:03 - 11:06"empathy and respect,
empathy and respect." -
11:07 - 11:08If you can tap into that,
-
11:08 - 11:10you can connect
-
11:10 - 11:12and you might be able to persuade
somebody in this country. -
11:13 - 11:18So thinking, again,
about what movie we're in, -
11:19 - 11:20maybe I got carried away before.
-
11:20 - 11:22Maybe it's not a zombie apocalypse movie.
-
11:23 - 11:25Maybe instead it's a buddy cop movie.
-
11:26 - 11:28(Laughter)
-
11:28 - 11:30Just roll with it, just go with it please.
-
11:30 - 11:31(Laughter)
-
11:32 - 11:35You know the kind:
there's a white cop and a black cop, -
11:35 - 11:37or maybe a messy cop and an organized cop.
-
11:37 - 11:39Whatever it is, they don't get along
-
11:39 - 11:40because of this difference.
-
11:41 - 11:44But in the end, when they have
to come together and they cooperate, -
11:44 - 11:46the solidarity that they feel,
-
11:46 - 11:50it's greater because of that gulf
that they had to cross. Right? -
11:51 - 11:53And remember that in these movies,
-
11:53 - 11:56it's usually worst in the second act
-
11:56 - 11:58when our leads are further apart
than ever before. -
11:59 - 12:01And so maybe that's
where we are in this country, -
12:01 - 12:03late in the second act
of a buddy cop movie -- -
12:03 - 12:06(Laughter)
-
12:06 - 12:09torn apart but about
to come back together. -
12:11 - 12:13It sounds good,
-
12:13 - 12:14but if we want it to happen,
-
12:14 - 12:17I think the responsibility
is going to start with us. -
12:18 - 12:20So this is my call to you:
-
12:21 - 12:23let's put this country back together.
-
12:25 - 12:28Let's do it despite the politicians
-
12:28 - 12:30and the media and Facebook and Twitter
-
12:31 - 12:32and Congressional redistricting
-
12:32 - 12:35and all of it,
all the things that divide us. -
12:36 - 12:38Let's do it because it's right.
-
12:39 - 12:44And let's do it
because this hate and contempt -
12:44 - 12:46that flows through all of us every day
-
12:47 - 12:50makes us ugly and it corrupts us,
-
12:50 - 12:53and it threatens
the very fabric of our society. -
12:55 - 12:58We owe it to one another and our country
-
12:58 - 13:00to reach out and try to connect.
-
13:01 - 13:05We can't afford to hate them any longer,
-
13:06 - 13:08and we can't afford
to let them hate us either. -
13:09 - 13:11Empathy and respect.
-
13:11 - 13:13Empathy and respect.
-
13:13 - 13:17If you think about it, it's the very least
that we owe our fellow citizens. -
13:18 - 13:19Thank you.
-
13:19 - 13:23(Applause)
- Title:
- Why your political discussions go nowhere | Robb Willer | TEDxMarin
- Description:
-
Compelling new research on language offers a response to political polarization. What if new social psychology research held the key to bridging America's political divides?
Robb Willer is a professor of Sociology, Psychology, and Organizational Behavior at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. from Cornell University and his B.A. from the University of Iowa. He previously taught at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was the 2009 recipient of the Golden Apple Teaching award, the only teaching award given by the student body.
Professor Willer’s research focuses on forces that bring people together (cooperation, morality, solidarity), forces that divide them (prejudice, competition), and settings featuring the complex interplay of the two (politics, organizations). A theme of his research is that many aspects of social life that are often viewed as antisocial – gossip, hierarchies, moral judgments – are in fact fundamental to social order.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 13:37
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Why your political discussions go nowhere | Robb Willer | TEDxMarin | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Why your political discussions go nowhere | Robb Willer | TEDxMarin | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Why your political discussions go nowhere | Robb Willer | TEDxMarin |