I’m Dr. Ali Mattu.
Why is free speech so hard to hear?
Let’s find out on The Psych Show!
Last week terrorists attacked the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people.
Regardless of what you think about the magazine, they drew cartoons and then terrorists killed
people in retaliation for drawing the cartoons. Those things aren’t equal.
Something that’s come out of this tragedy is a discussion on what exactly freedom of
speech is.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes described it as “the principle of
free thought — not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought
that we hate."
That definition resonates with me - legal protection for ideas that clash with your
beliefs.
THIS IS OFTEN PAINFUL! Free speech protected neo-Nazis who wanted to march through a neighborhood
of Holocaust survivors. It allows extremists to picket the funerals of U.S. soldiers. It
gives permission for public Quran burnings.
But without free speech, the government would get to decide what you can and can’t say.
THAT’S A HORRIBLE IDEA! Limits to free speech only benefit people who are in power. To paraphrase
the founder of the ACLU, “In order to defend the ideas you like, you have to defend the
ideas you hate.”
So to live in a free society, you have to deal with ideas that are going to upset you.
What happens to your brain when this happens?
To answer to this question, I’m going to tell you my favorite story from psychology.
Back in the 1950s there was a cult called “the Seekers”. They were led by Marian
Keech who claimed to be receiving messages from aliens telling her Earth would be destroyed
on December 21st, 1954. Keech said that her followers would be saved on midnight right
before the word ended. Lots of people believed Keech and gave up their lives to become a
"Seeker".
Dr. Leon Festinger was a psychologist who became interested in this story and infiltrated
the cult. He was there on December 21st, when the Earth was supposed to be destroyed. What
happened? Midnight came and went – the Earth was still there and no one was beamed up by
aliens. How did the Seekers see the situation? Did the Seekers believe they followed a fraud?
NO! They thought God was so impressed with their prayers that he saved the world.
The moral of this story? Your brain attacks information that conflicts with your beliefs,
just like your immune system fights off viruses.
Through a series of experiments, Dr. Festinger developed cognitive dissonance theory. Basically,
we’re always working to be consistent with the things we believe. When something challenges
our beliefs, like a lot of free speech does, we find a way to make the threatening information
less of a threat. Why does this happen? We're not Vulcans. Our psychology isn't based on
logic, it's based on emotion and the same emotions that make us run away from real dangers
make us run away from dangerous ideas.
By the time you hear ideas that conflict with your point of view, your mind has already
started fighting them off.
The opposite happens when you’re around people who share your beliefs. The more you
hear stuff you believe, the more radical your beliefs become. Psychologists call this group
polarization. That’s why democrats and republicans can’t seem to agree on anything anymore.
It’s also how terrorism develops in remote parts of the world. The internet has made
it easier for this happen — we follow people who share our worldview, reject those who
challenge them, and customize our newsfeed to our own biases.
If free speech is designed to protect a diversity of ideas and our brains are wired to protect
our own beliefs, then is it possible to have a real dialogue about the big issues impacting
the world?
ABSOLUTELY!
Challenge group polarization by spending time with people who have different beliefs than
yours. This will decrease how defensive your brain is hearing their ideas.
Once you know where the other person is coming from, then you can share your thoughts and
ideas in a way that resonates with their beliefs. This turns out to be the key to real, meaningful
dialogue — hearing information that syncs with your background. Researchers have found
that if you talk about climate change in the context of reducing pollution, most republicans
will shut down. But framing it in the context of creating more nuclear power plants opens
up discussion.
Freedom of speech isn’t enough to create real dialogue. All those issues that keep
coming up, gun control, climate change, healthcare, national security, where’re never going
to make any progress on any of them until we’re able to sit down, understand each
other, and talk in a way that makes sense with the other person’s worldview.
That’s why my favorite response to the Charlie Hebdo tragedy is this cartoon from arab cartoonist
Emad Hajjaj titled “Pen is stronger than bullets”.
Click on the Bill of Rights for more psychology.