DON’T GIVE UP ON EACH OTHER → A step-by-step guide to taking a hopeful attitude when talking about divisive issues It’s easy to think there’s no hope of finding common ground when talking about divisive issues, but there are strategies that can help. This fall, the Lab for the American Conversation launches a new online professional development class, The Science of Public Discourse (beav.es/public-discourse) that goes into detail about how that’s done. This step-by-step approach isn’t going to solve all the problems of the culture wars — it’s tough out there — but it’s a good place to start. Remember that everyone has values they are trying to protect and risks they are trying to avoid. What are they working toward and what are they afraid of? Our actions are never the result of rational decision-making in a moral and cultural vacuum. Listen to the words people use to express their central value systems. After you have named the core values at play, begin a conversation with an affirmation of those values. Language matters; use theirs. (This one is hardest.) Remember that you, too, always come with your own values and risks. This means that you are also making selective decisions, based on your beliefs, about how to frame a discussion. You don’t get to claim that only you are being logical. STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STAY CURIOUS Here’s Christopher Wolsko’s mission impossible: getting people to talk nicely to — and really hear — each other. Wolsko, an associate professor of psychology at OSU-Cascades, and his wife, Elizabeth Marino, associate professor of anthropology, are co-directors of the Laboratory for the American Conversation in Bend (osucascades.edu/lac). They founded the lab in 2019 with a vision of helping communities address divisive issues by advancing the science of public discourse. Whether addressing resource management, gun control or vaccinations, “hope lies in the ability to lower the temperature in these conversations,” Wolsko said. “What we’re teaching is not agreement but how to move forward in a less ego-threatened sort of way.” An attitude of humility and curiosity is core to the process taught by the lab. (See “Don’t Give Up on Each Other,” above, for an approach you can try in your own life.) That same curiosity fortifies Wolsko for this work. “Why do people hate each other? That’s really interesting,” he said cheerfully. He noted that the culture wars have intensified through the interplay of contemporary news media, advertising and social media. They’re designed to scare the crap out of us. We constantly have our buttons pushed. “It’s so powerful. I fall prey to the same stuff,” Wolsko said. He recommends disengaging as much as possible. Be informed, but seek a variety of news sources, not just an echo chamber that gives you a smug sense of pride in yourself and moral outrage at the “other side.” ↖ Christopher Wolsko co-founded the Laboratory for the American Conversation to address the problem of political polarization.
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