23. Shulevitz, J. (2015, March 21). In college and hiding from scary ideas. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/opinion/sunday/judith-shulevitz-hiding-from-scary-ideas.html
24. Rape culture. (n.d.). Oxford Living Dictionaries. Retrieved from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/rape_culture
25. McElroy, W. (2015, September 7). Debate with Jessica Valenti on “rape culture.” Retrieved from https://wendymcelroy.liberty.me/debate-with-jessica-valenti-on-rape-culture
26. Shulevitz (2015); see n. 23.
27. Around the same time, one student at Brown created a secret free speech Facebook group to engage in civil dialogue. See: Morey, A. (2015, December 28). FIRE Q&A: Reason@Brown’s Christopher Robotham. FIRE. Retrieved from https://www.thefire.org/fire-qa-reasonbrowns-christopher-robotham. See also: Nordlinger, J. (2015, November 30). Underground at Brown. National Review. Retrieved from http://www.nationalreview.com/article/427713/underground-brown-jay-nordlinger
28. This is a perfect example of what former Yale professor William Deresiewicz criticizes as the tendency for elite liberal arts colleges to avoid complex and challenging conversations about issues in favor of dogmatic conversations that create orthodox consensus. See: Deresiewicz, W. (2017, March 6). On political correctness. The American Scholar. Retrieved from https://theamericanscholar.org/on-political-correctness
29. Shulevitz (2015); see n. 23.
30. For a summary of this work, see: Haidt (2006), chapter 7. See also: work by Lawrence Calhoun & Richard Tedeschi. Posttraumatic Growth Research Group, UNC Charlotte. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://ptgi.uncc.edu
31. Foa & Kozak (1986).
32. McNally, R. (2016, September 13). If you need a trigger warning, you need PTSD. treatment. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/09/13/do-trigger-warnings-work/if-you-need-a-trigger-warning-you-need-ptsd-treatment
33. R. Leahy (personal communication, December 29, 2017). See also: McNally (2016); see n. 32.
34. So said Aristotle in The Nicomachean Ethics. The only exception to this principle we can think of is wisdom.
35. Twenge (2017), p. 3.
36. Twenge (2017), p. 154.
37. For discussion and evidence about the changing dynamic around speech and censorship on college campuses, see Stevens, S., & Haidt, J. (2018, April 11). The skeptics are wrong part 2: Speech culture on campus is changing. Retrieved from https://heterodoxacademy.org/the-skeptics-are-wrong-part-2
Chapter 2: The Untruth of Emotional Reasoning
Always Trust Your Feelings
1. From the Enchiridion. Epictetus & Lebell (1st–2nd century/1995), p. 7.
2. Mascaro (1995), chapter 1, verse 1.
3. Shakespeare, W. Hamlet. II.ii, ll. 268–270.
4. Milton (1667/2017), bk. I, ll. 241–255.
5. Boethius (ca. 524 CE/2011). Note that the psychoanalyst Victor Frankl, reflecting on his years in a concentration camp, reached the same conclusion: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” See: Frankl (1959/2006), Part I, p. 66.
6. In his best-selling book Thinking Fast and Slow (Kahneman 2011), Nobel laureate psychologist Daniel Kahneman refers to automatic processes as System 1, which is fast, and controlled processes as System 2, which is slow.
7. Thousands of studies and hundreds of meta-analyses have now examined the effectiveness of CBT for treating depression and anxiety disorders. For a recent and accessible review of the literature, see: Hollon & DeRubeis (in press). We can summarize a common view with this sentence from the website of the United Kingdom’s Royal College of Psychiatrists: CBT “is one of the most effective treatments for conditions where anxiety or depression is the main problem . . . [it is] the most effective psychological treatment for moderate and severe depression, [and] is as effective as antidepressants for many types of depression.” Blenkiron, P. (2013, July). Cognitive behavioural therapy. Royal College of Psychiatrists. Retrieved from https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinformation/therapies/cognitivebehaviouraltherapy.aspx
8. “Cognitive therapy can be as efficacious as antidepressant medications . . . unlike medication, its benefits persist after treatment ceases . . . cognitive therapy is at least as efficacious and quite possibly longer lasting than alternative approaches [to Generalized Anxiety Disorder].” Hollon & DeRubeis (in press).
9. Blenkiron (2013); see n. 7. See also: CBT outcome studies. (2016, November 25). Academy of Cognitive Therapy. Retrieved from http://www.academyofct.org/page/OutcomeStudies
10. We make no claim that CBT is more effective for all psychological disorders, but because it is so easy to do and it is the most researched form of psychotherapy, it is often thought of as the gold standard to which other forms of treatment, including drugs, should be compared. See: Butler, Chapman, Forman, & Beck (2006).
11. Nine common cognitive distortions from the list in Robert L. Leahy, Stephen J. F. Holland, & Lata K. McGinn’s book Treatment Plans and Interventions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders, 2nd ed. (New York, NY: Guilford Press, 2012).
12. For various definitions of “critical thinking,” see: Defining critical thinking. (n.d.). The Foundation for Critical Thinking. Retrieved from https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766
13. Sue et al. (2007). The definition quoted is on p. 271. The term was first coined and discussed by Pierce (1970).
14. Unconscious or implicit associations are very real, although the relationships of such associations to discriminatory behavior are complex and are currently being debated by social psychologists. See: Rubinstein, Jussim, & Stevens (2018). For a defense of the role of implicit bias in causing discriminatory behavior, see: Greenwald, Banaji, & Nosek (2015).
15. Even when a person interacts with a bigot, CBT can help that person reduce the amount and likelihood of suffering.
16. Hamid, S. (2018, February 17). Bari Weiss, outrage mobs, and identity politics. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/bari-weiss-immigrants/553550
17. Miller, G. (2017, July 18). The neurodiversity case for free speech. Quillette. Retrieved from http://quillette.com/2017/07/18/neurodiversity-case-free-speech
18. FIRE. (2017). Bias Response Team Report. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.thefire.org/first-amendment-library/special-collections/fire-guides/report-on-bias-reporting-systems-2017
19. For a review and critique of research on microaggressions, see Lilienfeld (2017).
20. For example, Heider (1958). One exception to this principle is very young children, who will often judge a well-intentioned act to be wrong if it accidentally causes harm. See: Piaget (1932/1965).
21. Utt, J. (2013, July 30). Intent vs. impact: Why your intentions don’t really matter. Everyday Feminism. Retrieved from https://everydayfeminism.com/2013/07/intentions-dont-really-matter
22. Karith created and teaches the C.A.R.E. model (Conscious Empathy, Active Listening, Responsible Reaction, and Environmental Awareness) in her workshops and presentations.
23. K. Foster (personal communication, February 17, 2018).
24. Zimmerman, J. (2016, June 16). Two kinds of PC. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.inside-highered.com/views/2016/06/16/examination-two-kinds-political-correctness-essay [inactive]
25. Rotter (1966).
26. For reviews, see Cobb-Clark (2015).
27. Buddelmeyer & Powdthavee (2015).
28. See, for example, the shout-downs of Charles Murray at Middlebury College and Heather Mac Donald at Claremont McKenna College, which we’ll describe in chapter 4. FIRE maintains a database of disinvitation attempts: Disinvitation Database. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.thefire.org/resources/disinvitation-database
29. Bauer-Wolf, J. (2017, October 6). Free speech advocate silenced. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/10/06/william-mary-students-who-shut-down-aclu-event-broke-conduct-code
30. About a third of the cases in which the push came from the right originated off campus, and half these cases involved religious organizations objecting to someone speaking about issues related to abortion and contraception. Of disinvitation efforts from the left, fewer than 5% were initiated from off-campus sources. To examine the data yourself, visit https://www.thefire.org/resources/disinvitation-database
31. Yiannopoulos, M. (2016, August 20). Trolls will save the world. Breitbart. Retrieved from http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2016/08/20/trolls-will-save-world
32. Stevens, S. (2017, February 7). Campus speaker disinvitations: Recent trends (Part 2 of 2) [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://heterodoxacademy.org/2017/02/07/campus-speaker-disinvitations-recent-trends-part-2-of-2
33. For more analysis of these trends, including a response to critics who claim that surveys show no recent changes in attitudes toward speech on campus, see Stevens, S., & Haidt, J. (2018, April 11). The skeptics are wrong part 2: Speech culture on campus is changing. Retrieved from https://heterodoxacademy.org/the-skeptics-are-wrong-part-2
34. Naughton, K. (2017, October). Speaking freely—What students think about expression at American colleges. FIRE. Retrieved from https://www.thefire.org/publications/student-attitudes-free-speech-survey
35. Socrates’ fellow citizens ultimately accused him of impiety and of corrupting the youth of Athens. He was convicted by a jury and forced to drink poison. We’d like to think we are better able to tolerate “impiety” today.
36. Venker, S. (2015, October 20). Williams College’s “Uncomfortable Learning” speaker series dropped me. Why? FIRE. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/10/20/williams-college-dropped-me-from-its-uncomfortable-learning-speaker-series-why.html
37. Paris, F. (2015, October 21). Organizers cancel Venker lecture. The Williams Record. Retrieved from http://williamsrecord.com/2015/10/21/organizers-cancel-venker-lecture [inactive]
38. Wood, Z. (2015, October 18). Breaking through a ring of motivated ignorance. Williams Alternative. Retrieved from http://williamsalternative.com/2015/10/breaking-through-a-ring-of-motivated-ignorance-zach-wood. See also Wood’s 2018 TED Talk: Why it’s worth listening to people you disagree with. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/zachary_r_wood_why_it_s_worth_listening_to_people_we_disagree_with
39. Wood (2015); see n. 38.
40. Gray, (2012), p. 86.
41. Falk, A. (2016, February 18). John Derbyshire’s scheduled appearance at Williams. Williams College Office of the President. Retrieved from https://president.williams.edu/letters-from-the-president/john-derbyshires-scheduled-appearance-at-williams
Chapter 3: The Untruth of Us Versus Them
Life Is a Battle Between Good People and Evil People
1. Sacks (2015), p. 51.
2. To protect her privacy, we have changed the student’s name.
3. Adapted from the definition here: Cisnormativity. (2017). The Queer Dictionary. Retrieved from http://queerdictionary.blogspot.com/2014/09/definition-of-cisnormativity.html
4. Other than changing the name of the student and swapping in “[dean of students]” for the original “DOS,” this was the exact text of the email.
5. You can see her explanation at minute 48 of this video: The CMC Forum (Producer). (2015, November 11). CMCers of color lead protest of lack of support from administration [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/OlB7Vy-lZZ8?t=48m1s
6. Miller, S. (2015, November 18). VIDEO: CMCers of color lead protest of dean of students, administration. The Forum. Retrieved from http://cmcforum.com/news/11112015-video-cmcers-of-color-protest-dean-of-students-administration
7. Tidmarsh, K. (2015, November 11). CMC students of color protest for institutional support, call for dean of students to resign. The Student Life. Retrieved from http://tsl.news/news/5265
8. See the full video at: The CMC Forum (Producer). (2015, November 11). CMCers of color lead protest of lack of support from administration [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/OlB7Vy-lZZ8?t=3s
9. Tidmarsh, K. (2015, November 11); see n. 7.
10. See that moment at time 41:33 of the video linked in n. 5.
11. We were not able to find any public statement of support, and when we emailed Spellman to ask if she knew of such a statement, she told us that she did not. Spellman, M. (personal communication, February 8, 2018).
12. Watanabe, T., & Rivera, C. (2015, November 13). Amid racial bias protests, Claremont McKenna dean resigns. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-claremont-marches-20151112-story.html
13. FIRE (2015, October 30). Email from Erika Christakis: “Dressing yourselves,” email to Silliman College (Yale) students on Halloween costumes [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.thefire.org/email-from-erika-christakis-dressing-yourselves-email-to-silliman-college-yale-students-on-halloween-costumes
14. FIRE. (2015, October 27). Email from the Intercultural Affairs Committee [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.thefire.org/email-from-intercultural-affairs. Note that the Intercultural Affairs Committee is part of the dean’s office.
15. Christakis, E. (2016, October 28). My Halloween email led to a campus firestorm—and a troubling lesson about self-censorship. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/my-halloween-email-led-to-a-campus-firestorm--and-a-troubling-lesson-about-self-censorship/2016/10/28/70e55 732-9b97-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html. For the email from Erika Chris-takis, see n. 13.
16. Wilson, R. (2015, October 31). Open letter to Associate Master Christakis. Down Magazine. Retrieved from http://downatyale.com/post.php?id=430
17. By an extraordinary coincidence, Greg happened to be on the Yale campus that day and was present at the confrontation. To watch the videos that Greg took of the event, see: Shibley, R. (2015, September 13). New video of last year’s Yale halloween costume confrontation emerges [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.thefire.org/new-video-of-last-years-yale-halloween-costume-confrontation-emerges
18. Kirchick, J. (2016, September 12). New videos show how Yale betrayed itself by favoring cry-bullies. Tablet Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/213212/yale-favoring-cry-bullies
19. FIRE (Producer). (2015, November 7). Yale University students protest Halloween costume email (VIDEO 3). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/9IEFD_JVYd0?t=1m17s
20. On the question of whether the master creates an intellectual space or a home: the master plays a mixed role, partly residential and quasi-parental, partly intellectual. Jon graduated from Yale in 1985 and went to many academic events and talks in the home of the master of Davenport College.
21. President and Yale College dean underscore commitment to a “better Yale.” (2015, November 6). YaleNews. Retrieved from https://news.yale.edu/2015/11/06/president-and-yale-college-dean-underscore-commitment-better-yale
22. Stanley-Becker, I. (2015, November 13). Minority students at Yale give list of demands to university president. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/13/minority-students-at-yale-give-list-of-demands-to-university-president. See also: Next Yale. (2015, November 18). Next Yale demands for the Administration. Retrieved from https://www.thefire.org/next-yale-demands-for-the-administration
23. Schick, F. (2015, December 7). Erika Christakis leaves teaching role. Yale Daily News. Retrieved from https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/12/07/erika-christakis-to-end-teaching
24. Physics professor Douglas Stone spearheaded a public letter defending the Christakises that was signed over the course of many weeks by ninety professors, mostly in the sciences and the medical school. See also: Chris
takis, E. (2016, October 28). My Halloween email led to a campus firestorm—and a troubling lesson about self-censorship. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/my-halloween-email-led-to-a-campus-firestorm—and-a-troubling-lesson-about-self-censorship/2016/10/28/70e55732-9b97-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html
25. For Claremont McKenna, see Watanabe, T., & Rivera, C. (2015, November 13). Amid racial protests, Claremont McKenna dean resigns. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-claremont-marches-20151112-story.html. For Yale, see Stanley-Becker, I. (2015, November 5). A confrontation over race at Yale: Hundreds of students demand answers from the school’s first black dean. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/05/a-confrontation-over-race-at-yale-hundreds-of-students-demand-answers-from-the-schools-first-black-dean
26. Tajfel (1970).
27. See overall review in Berreby (2005); see Hogg (2016) for a review of social identity theory; see Cikara & Van Bavel (2014) for a review of neuroscience work in this area.
28. Vaughn, Savjani, Cohen, & Eagleman (manuscript under review). For more on this study, see: iqsquared (Producer). (2012, June 22). David Eagleman: What makes us empathetic? IQ2 Talks [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/TDjWryXdVd0?t=7m42s
29. For a review of this literature, including the debate over whether “group selection” played a role in the human story, over and above individual selection, see Haidt (2012), chapter 9. For a contrary view, see: Pinker, S. (2012, June 18). The false allure of group selection. Edge. Retrieved from https://www.edge.org/conversation/steven_pinker-the-false-allure-of-group-selection
30. Chapter 10 of The Righteous Mind (Haidt, 2012) describes the “hive switch,” a psychological reflex in which self-interest is turned off and group interest becomes paramount; people lose themselves in the group. People can become tribal without the hive switch getting activated. The hive response is what happens when tribalism is activated intensely, particularly through highly engaging multisensory rituals.
The Coddling of the American Mind Page 31