Wednesday, August 11, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Commentary...
Pause before sending
By Mitchell Luftig
Columnist
The false perception
4 spread through social
media 4 that the local
McDonald9s franchise in
Sisters refused to feed hun-
gry wildland firefighters led
some in Sisters Country to
respond with anger, moral
outrage, and a desire to
punish the offenders.
We can understand this
response by peering at our
behavior through the lens
of evolutionary psychology.
We learn from Andrew W.
Delton and his colleagues:
<From prehistory to the
present, human survival
has depended on produc-
tive labor, much of which
was carried out by groups
of people coordinating their
actions to reach a common
goal and then sharing the
resulting benefits. This style
of cooperation 4 often
called collective action
4 is seen across human
societies.
<The presence of indi-
viduals with a disposition
to free ride4that is, to take
the benefits of group coop-
eration without contributing
to the cooperative project4
can jeopardize the evolution
of collective action.=
According to Delton,
communities respond to
free riders by excluding
them from the benefits
of community member-
ship, creating incentives to
become contributors, or by
reducing their welfare as a
disincentive to engage in
this kind of behavior.
As communities grew,
our ancestors relied more
frequently upon gossip
to identify the free rid-
ers amongst them and to
warn others how they could
expect to be treated should
they free ride.
It was always more
important for our ances-
tors to use gossip to iden-
tify the free riders amongst
them than to learn about the
deeds of Good Samaritans.
This may help to explain
why more negative than
positive information is
shared about others.
Spreading negative
information matches our
inclination to believe the
worst about others and their
motivation (and the best in
ourselves). While we are
likely to attribute our mis-
takes to circumstances, we
are likely to attribute the
mistakes made by others to
their character flaws.
It9s also challenging for
us to consider two diametri-
cally opposing (dissonant)
ideas at once. This is the
basis of the theory of cogni-
tive dissonance.
Once we decide which
explanation or set of facts
to rely upon, we may be
unwilling to admit we made
a mistake, despite an unfa-
vorable outcome. Instead
we rationalize our deci-
sions, presenting them in
the most favorable light
(<Although smoking may
be harmful to my health,
if I stopped smoking and
became obese, that would
be even worse for me=).
If our instinct is to trust
online information provided
to us by someone we judge
to be reliable, we may not
take the time to identify the
origin of the information
or determine its accuracy.
When events prove the
information false, we don9t
admit it to those who might
learn from our example, or
reconsider the wisdom of
passing it along, despite
the harm to someone9s
reputation.
Here9s how we might
respond with greater skill.
" Let9s start, as Jim
Cornelius suggested in a
recent editorial, by offer-
ing each other a little grace.
Rather than assume the
worst possible motivation,
we can give strangers the
benefit of the doubt. Is there
a more benign explanation
for their behavior?
We can recall that we
have all had days where we
failed to live up to the best
version of ourselves (and
to thank God that friends
and strangers alike aren9t
judging our character based
upon those days alone).
" Has this individual
or organization made a
meaningful contribution to
the common good? What
are some of their positive
qualities?
" We can provide incen-
tives so free riders see
the benefit of becoming
cooperators.
" We can pause before
we hit send and ask our-
selves: Is it true? Is it help-
ful? Will it hurt others?
" We can take a step out
of our silos, set aside our
assumptions and biases,
and try to discover the truth,
even if this means sacrific-
ing some of our cherished
beliefs. And when we are
wrong, we can say so,
encouraging others to fol-
low our example and act
just as courageously.
Sources: https://www.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti-
cles/PMC3365621/; https://
www.rte.ie/brainstorm/
2020/1201/1181664-why-
do-we-assume-the-worst-
about-other-peoples-
motives/; https://www.vice.
com/en/article/ne9ae8/
gossip-may-have-played-
a-role-in-human-survival;
https://www.theatlantic.
com/ideas/archive/2020/07/
role-cognitive-dissonance-
pandemic/614074/
17
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