Why we’re angry about everything 😡
↩️UNFOLLOW University — June 23, 2023
Happy Friday!
In the book, “Stuck: How Vaccine Rumors Start and Why They Don't Go Away”, Heidi Larson writes, “The deluge of conflicting information, misinformation and manipulated information on social media should be recognized as a global public health threat.”
The professor and author was so convinced of this threat she founded The Vaccine Confidence Project to help detect disinformation and build public trust.
“I predict that the next major outbreak… will not be due to a lack of preventive technologies,” Larson said. “Instead, emotional contagion, digitally enabled, could erode trust in vaccines so much as to render them moot.”
Regrettably, she made this haunting prediction one year before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Larson’s theory quickly became a reality. Any conversation about immunizations became a moral showdown between public safety and individual liberty. We drew battle lines and lumped one another into groups.
You were either vaccinated or unintelligent.
You accepted science or rejected medicine.
You were pro-mask or pro-freedom.
You chose faith or fear.
You were a liberal sheep or a conservative lion.
This distortion of reality deepened imaginary divides by reducing our ability to reason with ourselves, and others. This was much more than heated online exchanges and Twitter trolling. When injections become political preferences and masks are statements of faith, the fight is surely about more than public safety.
The word “virus” was originally used to describe an invisible poison capable of corruption, destruction and harm. But the biological virus has revealed an equally deadly psychological one.
People with opposing beliefs are now opponents.
This leads me to an inconvenient theory of my own. Rampant disinformation and distrust are symptoms of a larger cultural threat. It’s more than a viral contagion, it’s a value crisis.
The virus inside us has divided us much further than social distancing ever did. The land of liberty is losing.
There’s a virus between us.
🤯 Radical Truth
Your opinion is not your identity.
Why are we so angry? Why is it so tempting to reject people because of their opinions? What personal needs am I serving by remaining ignorant, intolerant or arrogant? Whose truth am I adopting? Why?
When your opinions become your identity, it’s unthinkable to abandon your beliefs in the face of new information. Instead, we defend our ideas, deny our critics and celebrate their downfall.
Our artificial need to be on the “right side” of whatever history we choose, married with an unhealthy appetite for negative information, creates a breeding ground of distrust, tribalism, and cultural warfare. We’re all guilty.
There are three ways bias divides us and turns our beliefs into weapons:
Binary bias is a person’s primal need to simplify complexity by dividing things into categories. It sorts beliefs into bins, translating the broad spectrum of human context into a convenient yes/no survey. In his book “Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know”, Professor Adam Grant gives voice to the dangers binary bias poses to critical thinking. “Hearing an opposing opinion doesn’t necessarily motivate you to rethink your own stance; it makes it easier for you to stick to your guns,” he writes. “Presenting two extremes isn’t the solution; it’s part of the polarization problem.”
Bad-news bias is our tendency to invest more energy and attention into negative information than positive. In a study of Covid-19 media coverage in the U.S., researchers found almost 87 percent of national coverage was negative compared to 51% internationally. Why? Americans respond, share and engage more with negative news online. While we actively prefer good news, the study suggests, we react to the bad. Every like, link, click, comment, retweet or view becomes an asset that can be bought and sold. Our feelings are literally fueling a $700 billion industry where for-profit media organizations are incentivized to create and promote more negative news. This bias for corruption, conflict, downfall and hypocrisy blossomed into a buffet during COVID-19, with extreme side effects. As New York Times writer, David Leonhardt, admits, “If we’re constantly telling a negative story, we are not giving our audience the most accurate portrait of reality. We are shading it.”
Confirmation bias is our common inclination to seek and favor information that supports our own prior desires and beliefs. Selectively avoiding facts that challenge us is ignorance but we all do it. David Robson, author of the book “The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes” explained how this contradiction contributes to poor decision-making. “Confirmation bias... twist people's perceptions of the risks of the virus through the ready availability of misinformation from dubious sources that exaggerate the risks of the vaccines.”
The results are far-reaching. A 2018 study helped quantify how our own biases collude against us. False news spreads up to 6X faster online by exploiting our feelings of fear, disgust and surprise.
It seems bad news sells, fake news spreads and “other” people are always the problem. Perhaps we’re also the solution?
Picture this: Your neighbor’s house is on fire and so is yours. Binary bias is the spark that started it. Bad-news bias is the kerosene that keeps it burning. Confirmation bias is the smoke preventing us from getting help.
It’s not too late for a rescue. But first, you have to recognize how you’re contributing to the fire before you take responsibility for extinguishing it.
⚡️Courageous Question
Who is the person or group that elicits the angriest emotions from you? What do you have in common?
🗣 Wonderful Words
"These biases don’t just prevent us from applying our intelligence. They can actually contort our intelligence into a weapon against truth."
🙏🏽 Prayer Package
God, every day presents a new opportunity to be outraged by someone’s opinions and decisions. It seems there’s no shortage of worry and hostility, even among your people. How can I protect the peace you so generously provide? Show me the truth of who you are so I can show others the love you gave me. We are a new family. Tame my tongue, my mind and my heart to build others up. Remove the blinders, lies and half-truths that only serve to divide us from your love. When I am justifiably offended, disappointed or even attacked, strengthen me with the wisdom of reconciliation and the peace of surrender. Amen.
🎵 I Surrender - Hillsong ✝️
🛠 Practical Tool
People with opposing beliefs are not your opponents. For every bias that blinds us, there is a corrective lens providing a fuller, richer more accurate view of reality.
Who would you love to see lose? Which of your own opinions are you most certain of? Who benefits most when we agree least?
Use the exercise below to do 3 things this weekend:
Identify which bias is your biggest blindspot.
Pick one item from the right column to test or rethink a critical assumption.
Spend 15 minutes with someone you disagree with on the subject. It could be an article, podcast, video or even an actual conversation (gasp).
The more resistant you are to try this, the more likely you need to. Don’t worry, I’ll be taking my own medicine as well.
Have a great weekend and send me your thoughts, feedback or questions. You can view all my previous newsletters here.
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Every Friday I’ll send you 5 courageous ideas to help you redesign your work life by making better career decisions:
🤯 Radical Truth - A story from me
⚡️ Courageous Question - A challenge for you
🗣 Wonderful Words - A quote worth remembering
🙏🏽 Prayer Package - A moment of meditation
🛠 Practical Tool - An actionable resource
