The replication crisis had made it fashionable to mock social psychology, but this 2000 article on “The Psychology of the Unthinkable” by Phil Tetlock and co-authors feels prescient:
A sacred value can be defined as any value that a moral community implicitly or explicitly treats as possessing infinite or transcendental significance that precludes comparisons, trade-offs, or indeed any other mingling with bounded or secular values. When sacred values are under assault… people engage in a continual struggle to protect their private selves and public identities from moral contamination by impure thoughts and deeds. The most emphatic ways to distance oneself from normative transgressions are by (a) expressing moral outrage—a composite psychological state that subsumes cognitive reactions (harsh character attributions to those who endorse the proscribed thoughts and even to those who do not endorse, but do tolerate, this way of thinking in others), affective reactions (anger and contempt for those who endorse the proscribed thoughts), and behavioral reactions (support for ostracizing and punishing deviant thinkers); and (b) engaging in moral cleansing that reaffirms core values and loyalties by acting in ways that shore up those aspects of the moral order that have been undercut by the transgression. Within this framework, rigidity, accompanied by righteous indignation and by blanket refusal even to contemplate certain thoughts, can be commendable— indeed, it is essential for resolutely reasserting the identification of self with the collective moral order.
Yes, humans have always treated some thoughts as “unthinkable” – and even intellectual elites are all-too-human. But when this piece was written two decades ago, Western intellectual elites still heavily stigmatized the quasi-religious mentality. Now much of this stigma has gone away; the number of intellectuals who have gotten angry at me for promoting calmness still stuns me.
Discourse is worse, but at least it’s now obvious that Tetlock and company were right.
READER COMMENTS
nobody.really
Sep 10 2019 at 11:02am
I never understood the visceral reaction people had to flag “desecration.” Get a grip: It’s free speech. I grew up in a live-and-let-live world, gathering around the fire to play Cat Steven’s “Peace Train” on the guitar. Chill out, people.
Now, it’s been a while since Peace Train dominated the radio stations—or even since people bothered with radio stations. But then came October 30, 2010: Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert’s “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.” And in the middle of that show, somehow Stewart pulls Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam) out of nowhere. And the man is singing PEACE TRAIN! It’s miraculous! It’s wonderful! It’s …
Interrupted. To make a joke. And he never finishes the song.
Annnnnnd my head explodes: WHO DARES INTERRUPT CAT STEVENS SINGING PEACE TRAIN??!??!??? Have you no decency? At long last, sir, have you no sense of decency?
(Even thinking about it now makes my pulse race.)
So perhaps we all have our sacred cows. Or Cats.
David S
Sep 10 2019 at 4:36pm
While I personally agree with your views on flag burning, I can certainly understand the other side in this. I grew up on marine cor bases, and a Soviet nuclear bomber overflew the base once, just to freak us out (they were constantly doing such things with less dangerous aircraft). All of our dads would occasionally disappear in unison (which would freak us out), and some did not come back. The symbol these sacrifices were made for was the flag.
So I can understand why some people would take extreme offense at someone burning it.
We all come from different backgrounds, that help define who we are. When someone thinks differently than you, they probably aren’t crazy, and are unlikely to even be wrong. They are just working from a different data set.
To me, that is the biggest problem with the sacred cats/cows – everything is sacred to someone, and it ends up with no one being able to talk about anything. But I am hardly immune!
Dylan
Sep 10 2019 at 11:16pm
You know, I’ve always been just a little bummed that I missed the Stewart/Colbert special, but hearing that they interrupted Peace Train makes me totally ok about that, so thanks.
And then, trying to tie the flag burning to music, my thoughts on the matter were probably ineliably shaped by the immortal words of Calvin Johnson
“About all the bugaboo
Concerning folks burning the flag
I’d always learned that burning was
The proper, respectful way to dispose of the flag
When it’s become obsolete and worn out it’s usefulness
Hell, being an American is all about getting things off your chest
And saying your peace
A visual aid can come in mighty handy for getting your point across
So don’t be using up all your matches and lighters
Wavin ’em at those big concerts
Save ’em for the streets
Where they can express your true feelings
And those of our founding fathers”
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