moved around eight times growing up
traveled internationally met a lot of
different people had a lot of different
experiences and I studied abroad in
France ah France the culture the food
the people the food that I mentioned
there was food the food was great and
about three-quarters of the way through
my stay my host family tells me one
night they have no desire to come visit
America we shocked why would you not
want to come see my country I said wait
now no no we’d really like to come to
Disney World somehow that didn’t make it
better and you’ve reduced my entire
country to a theme park part of which
includes a little section that’s like
France not all that outside the box I
struggled understanding how they thought
why they looked at our country this way
fast forward many years I’m back in the
classroom teaching now in this semester
I have a class that has students from 4
different countries in it and I realize
there are as many different assumptions
and as many different perspectives about
the world in that classroom as there are
people in it and as we talk about all
the different aspects of psychology and
we’ve in current events I realize that
there are so many different ways to see
and to understand the world and when I
look at the world it seems to be a lot
more divided than it used to be you turn
on the TV open up a newspaper scroll
through social media
seems like you got a lot of people over
here a lot of people over here not so
much anybody in the middle I realize
that there is an advantage for media to
sort of sensationalize these extreme
viewpoints it’s a lot more interesting
to turn on the TV and see coverage of a
protest rally or some sort of March than
it is to see the cameras trained on a
room full of people that are quietly
compromising so I get that but at what
point does perception turn into reality
we can think about division other ways
too we can look at it economically we
real
if we look at income inequality in this
country there’s more income inequality
now than there have been in the last 40
years a smaller number of people
controlling a larger percentage of
income that at any time in the last four
decades income inequality is going to
point us in the direction of economic
uncertainty unless we happen to be at
the top of that pyramid economic
uncertainty along with the social
uncertainty related to all the different
social changes that we’ve seen over the
last 10 plus years as we continue to
fight against discrimination adds up to
a lot of uncertainty so how do we deal
with this how do we fix this division
how do we explain this division first
off since I teach psychology we’re gonna
start there we can start by thinking
about this in terms of identity
developmental psychology tells us that
it’s important to kind of go through a
process of figuring out who you are
what’s important to you what values you
hold since we’re social animals it makes
sense that a portion of our identity is
going to be defined by the social groups
that we identify with social identity
then it’s going to do a lot of
interesting things for us one of those
things is it’s gonna preserve our levels
of esteem our groups do well we feel
better about ourselves we have any
college football seasons gonna be here
before we know it I know when my teams
win I feel that much better about myself
I had absolutely nothing to do with my
team’s winning and it doesn’t really
change my life in any meaningful way but
because they won feeling a little bit
happier of course the flip side of that
is also true when they lose you don’t
want to talk about that so social
identity helps to preserve our esteem
helps maintain those levels of esteem
and also kind of points in a more
dangerous direction we can use social
identity theory to predict things like
prejudice and discrimination if I feel
better when my group does well that
means that another group has to not do
well there’s going to be winners and
losers and turns out it’s not that
difficult to get us to engage in this
discriminatory behavior
we really need is to put people into
groups to get them to behave in ways
that benefit their own groups over
others so we’re not that difficult to
divide once we get there it’s not that
hard to make us discriminate against
others and once we formed our view of
the world how we see things what our
assumptions are we’re not going to do a
real great job of understanding the
world or seeing the world as it really
is
confirmation bias tells us that we’re
gonna go out and we’re gonna try and
find information that’s consistent with
our own views of the world so I’m going
to be less likely to remember
information that I come across that
challenges my worldview and be more
likely to remember bits of information
that confirm how I see the world I’m a
big fan of the Chicago Cubs I’m not
going to spend a lot of my day going out
and finding information about how
they’re not as good as I think they are
so maybe we don’t do a great job of
understanding the world as it really is
maybe we don’t do a great job of being
more inclusive than we are
how can we fix these problems how can we
address these divisions the good news is
we can use psychology for this too and
we can use kind of the same things to
fix both of these issues the first thing
that we need to do is to really examine
our assumptions what do we think about
the world how do we see the world what
are our perspectives on the world as
long as we can look at those and start
to think about where they come from do
they apply to everybody are they unique
to me maybe we can start to realize that
there are other ways to see the world
the second step is to broaden our
perspective surround ourselves with
people that have perspectives that are
different from ours you hang out in the
room with a whole bunch of people that
are just like you probably going to have
the same worldview when you come out of
that room than when you went into it so
that’s what I want to challenge you all
with today it’s to maybe step outside of
your comfortable circle maybe start
crossing some of those imaginary
barriers that we’ve drawn and trying
meet people that are different from you
maybe there’s somebody out there from a
different political party and you just
don’t understand how they can think the
things that they do maybe somebody from
different religious affiliations
different sexual preferences don’t rely
on your assumptions about these people
get up go out and find one and talk to
them but don’t just ask them a bunch of
random questions I want you to ask them
very specific questions find out what
you have in common with these people
maybe it’s music maybe you both like
tacos maybe you have the same concerns
about the world maybe you have some of
the same hopes and dreams figure out
what things you share with this person
maybe you can’t find an example of a
person that you’d like to get to know
more about so find their readers or find
excuse-me their authors find their
thinkers and read what they have to say
what do they think about the world how
did they get the perspectives that they
had and I guarantee you if you go out
and try and find ways that you’re
similar with people you’re going to be
successful at doing it the great thing
about doing this is that you’ve then
shown somebody else the exact same way
when they have questions about other
people you’ve given them a model to
follow I don’t think this is something
that you have to do a hundred times I
don’t think it’s even something you have
to do ten times I think if you go out
once find one person that you don’t know
and you don’t understand it’s gonna
change your world it’s gonna change how
you see things how you understand things
if we get enough of us going out there
and doing this and asking people
focusing on how we’re the same as
opposed to how we’re different and
before you know it those divisions that
we see are going to be a little bit less
insurmountable than they might seem now
I’m gonna leave you with this the world
be a very complicated thing or can be
really simple so changing it can be very
difficult very easy just a function of
whether you choose to focus on the
obstacles
or the opportunities what’s the worst
thing that could happen [Applause]
traveled internationally met a lot of
different people had a lot of different
experiences and I studied abroad in
France ah France the culture the food
the people the food that I mentioned
there was food the food was great and
about three-quarters of the way through
my stay my host family tells me one
night they have no desire to come visit
America we shocked why would you not
want to come see my country I said wait
now no no we’d really like to come to
Disney World somehow that didn’t make it
better and you’ve reduced my entire
country to a theme park part of which
includes a little section that’s like
France not all that outside the box I
struggled understanding how they thought
why they looked at our country this way
fast forward many years I’m back in the
classroom teaching now in this semester
I have a class that has students from 4
different countries in it and I realize
there are as many different assumptions
and as many different perspectives about
the world in that classroom as there are
people in it and as we talk about all
the different aspects of psychology and
we’ve in current events I realize that
there are so many different ways to see
and to understand the world and when I
look at the world it seems to be a lot
more divided than it used to be you turn
on the TV open up a newspaper scroll
through social media
seems like you got a lot of people over
here a lot of people over here not so
much anybody in the middle I realize
that there is an advantage for media to
sort of sensationalize these extreme
viewpoints it’s a lot more interesting
to turn on the TV and see coverage of a
protest rally or some sort of March than
it is to see the cameras trained on a
room full of people that are quietly
compromising so I get that but at what
point does perception turn into reality
we can think about division other ways
too we can look at it economically we
real
if we look at income inequality in this
country there’s more income inequality
now than there have been in the last 40
years a smaller number of people
controlling a larger percentage of
income that at any time in the last four
decades income inequality is going to
point us in the direction of economic
uncertainty unless we happen to be at
the top of that pyramid economic
uncertainty along with the social
uncertainty related to all the different
social changes that we’ve seen over the
last 10 plus years as we continue to
fight against discrimination adds up to
a lot of uncertainty so how do we deal
with this how do we fix this division
how do we explain this division first
off since I teach psychology we’re gonna
start there we can start by thinking
about this in terms of identity
developmental psychology tells us that
it’s important to kind of go through a
process of figuring out who you are
what’s important to you what values you
hold since we’re social animals it makes
sense that a portion of our identity is
going to be defined by the social groups
that we identify with social identity
then it’s going to do a lot of
interesting things for us one of those
things is it’s gonna preserve our levels
of esteem our groups do well we feel
better about ourselves we have any
college football seasons gonna be here
before we know it I know when my teams
win I feel that much better about myself
I had absolutely nothing to do with my
team’s winning and it doesn’t really
change my life in any meaningful way but
because they won feeling a little bit
happier of course the flip side of that
is also true when they lose you don’t
want to talk about that so social
identity helps to preserve our esteem
helps maintain those levels of esteem
and also kind of points in a more
dangerous direction we can use social
identity theory to predict things like
prejudice and discrimination if I feel
better when my group does well that
means that another group has to not do
well there’s going to be winners and
losers and turns out it’s not that
difficult to get us to engage in this
discriminatory behavior
we really need is to put people into
groups to get them to behave in ways
that benefit their own groups over
others so we’re not that difficult to
divide once we get there it’s not that
hard to make us discriminate against
others and once we formed our view of
the world how we see things what our
assumptions are we’re not going to do a
real great job of understanding the
world or seeing the world as it really
is
confirmation bias tells us that we’re
gonna go out and we’re gonna try and
find information that’s consistent with
our own views of the world so I’m going
to be less likely to remember
information that I come across that
challenges my worldview and be more
likely to remember bits of information
that confirm how I see the world I’m a
big fan of the Chicago Cubs I’m not
going to spend a lot of my day going out
and finding information about how
they’re not as good as I think they are
so maybe we don’t do a great job of
understanding the world as it really is
maybe we don’t do a great job of being
more inclusive than we are
how can we fix these problems how can we
address these divisions the good news is
we can use psychology for this too and
we can use kind of the same things to
fix both of these issues the first thing
that we need to do is to really examine
our assumptions what do we think about
the world how do we see the world what
are our perspectives on the world as
long as we can look at those and start
to think about where they come from do
they apply to everybody are they unique
to me maybe we can start to realize that
there are other ways to see the world
the second step is to broaden our
perspective surround ourselves with
people that have perspectives that are
different from ours you hang out in the
room with a whole bunch of people that
are just like you probably going to have
the same worldview when you come out of
that room than when you went into it so
that’s what I want to challenge you all
with today it’s to maybe step outside of
your comfortable circle maybe start
crossing some of those imaginary
barriers that we’ve drawn and trying
meet people that are different from you
maybe there’s somebody out there from a
different political party and you just
don’t understand how they can think the
things that they do maybe somebody from
different religious affiliations
different sexual preferences don’t rely
on your assumptions about these people
get up go out and find one and talk to
them but don’t just ask them a bunch of
random questions I want you to ask them
very specific questions find out what
you have in common with these people
maybe it’s music maybe you both like
tacos maybe you have the same concerns
about the world maybe you have some of
the same hopes and dreams figure out
what things you share with this person
maybe you can’t find an example of a
person that you’d like to get to know
more about so find their readers or find
excuse-me their authors find their
thinkers and read what they have to say
what do they think about the world how
did they get the perspectives that they
had and I guarantee you if you go out
and try and find ways that you’re
similar with people you’re going to be
successful at doing it the great thing
about doing this is that you’ve then
shown somebody else the exact same way
when they have questions about other
people you’ve given them a model to
follow I don’t think this is something
that you have to do a hundred times I
don’t think it’s even something you have
to do ten times I think if you go out
once find one person that you don’t know
and you don’t understand it’s gonna
change your world it’s gonna change how
you see things how you understand things
if we get enough of us going out there
and doing this and asking people
focusing on how we’re the same as
opposed to how we’re different and
before you know it those divisions that
we see are going to be a little bit less
insurmountable than they might seem now
I’m gonna leave you with this the world
be a very complicated thing or can be
really simple so changing it can be very
difficult very easy just a function of
whether you choose to focus on the
obstacles
or the opportunities what’s the worst
thing that could happen [Applause]
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