Uncomfortable Ideas. Bo Bennett PhD

against.” Think of social behavior on a continuum. At one end, we have overtly racist, sexist, and mean-spirited forms of expression or action directed towards those who are incapable of defending themselves due to lack of power. On the other end of the continuum, we have any form of expression or action that is interpreted as overtly racist, sexist, and mean-spirited. Political correctness exists between the two extremes. This means a socially unaware person can think she is politically correct by referring to a black person as a “negro” (and avoiding the other N-word) where most others would consider her comment politically incorrect. Conversely, a college student could start a protest over the term “Black Friday” connecting the day after Thanksgiving somehow to slavery, then call it “racist.” There is no universally agreed upon ideal level of political correctness and what is extreme to one person might be perfectly reasonable to another. Be prepared to argue for your opinion and convince others why you are right.

      Uncomfortable Idea: You are not the authority or standard on what is or is not politically correct. You don’t have moral superiority; you have the illusion of it.

      The Structure of This Book

      In part one, we look at the meaning of “uncomfortable idea,” specifically what uncomfortable ideas are, what it means to avoid them, and why it’s so important to entertain them and, at times, embrace them.

      Part two deals with the most common unconscious and conscious reasons why we avoid uncomfortable ideas and includes dozens of examples, most of which will fall outside your comfort zone.

      Part three looks at why we refuse to accept uncomfortable ideas that we would likely accept if they weren’t uncomfortable.

      In part four, you are presented with several uncomfortable ideas that should make you rethink many of your core beliefs.

      Finally, in part five, you will find a listing of over a hundred uncomfortable questions that will make excellent discussion questions for college classes, social media, or fun questions to break out at a party—assuming you don’t mind some heated discussions.

      Not everyone will find all of these ideas uncomfortable, but the chances are most of you will find most of these ideas uncomfortable. Don’t avoid them; entertain them and either accept them or educate yourself as to why they shouldn’t be accepted, so you will be prepared with reasons as to why the ideas are bad when someone is attempting to convince you otherwise. This is the foundation of critical thinking.

      ¹ Rudman, L. A., & Goodwin, S. A. (2004). Gender differences in automatic in-group bias: why do women like women more than men like men? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(4), 494–509. http://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.87.4.494

      ² Iyengar, S., & Hahn, K. S. (2009). Red Media, Blue Media: Evidence of Ideological Selectivity in Media Use. Journal of Communication, 59(1), 19–39. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.01402.x

      ³ The Importance of Cognitive Errors in Diagnosis and Strategies to Minimize Them : Academic Medicine. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2003/08000/The_Importance_of_Cognitive_Errors_in_Diagnosis.3.aspx

      ⁴ Stanovich, K. E., & West, R. F. (2008). On the relative independence of thinking biases and cognitive ability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(4), 672–695. http://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.94.4.672

      ⁵ Research on Reasoning. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://keithstanovich.com/Site/Research_on_Reasoning.html

      Part I: The Uncomfortable Idea

      What is an “Uncomfortable Idea?”

      Simply defined, an uncomfortable idea is an idea that makes you uncomfortable. This is a subjective concept meaning that any given idea can be uncomfortable to you but not to another person or vice versa. More specifically, an uncomfortable idea is a thought that is difficult to entertain due to real or anticipated psychological pain or social consequences that result from entertaining the thought.

      Recall the opening question about attending the Neo-Nazi event. For most of us, just considering attending this event makes us feel uncomfortable, and we didn’t even get to the ideas presented in the event. Perhaps you wouldn’t attend the Neo-Nazi event simply because you have no interest whatsoever in the topic. You don’t care if Hitler had a good side or if there were aspects of the Nazi party that made good social and economic sense. It wouldn’t surprise you, offend you, or make you uncomfortable in any way—you just don’t care. There are countless ideas and even more perspectives on those ideas. One couldn’t possibly entertain them all in a lifetime let alone someone who works, has a family, and enjoys one’s spare time. However, any ideas that fit into this category would, by definition, not qualify as “uncomfortable ideas.” Perhaps if more people supported the “nice guy Hitler” idea, then it would become an uncomfortable idea worthy of being entertained, but for now, it is simply an idea unworthy of our consideration. It is up to those who are trying to get us to consider the idea to convince us as to why it matters.

      In addition to being apathetic to the idea (i.e., not giving a rat’s ass), you might be well informed and not likely to be exposed to any new information that will change your mind. Perhaps you have studied Nazi history and are well aware of the arguments and reasons presented by Nazi sympathizers. Your “avoidance” of the idea would more accurately be a refusal to waste your time on hearing information you already know, or can reasonably anticipate hearing. Indifference and being well-informed aside, ideas are often avoided for a reason.

      Avoiding Uncomfortable Ideas

      We avoid uncomfortable ideas in three main ways: we avoid entertaining them, we avoid accepting them, and we avoid expressing them. These processes can be deliberate or done subconsciously or have components of both. Many of the same reasons we avoid entertaining uncomfortable ideas apply to why we avoid accepting and expressing these ideas. Refusing to entertain an uncomfortable idea is a conscious decision not to think about, investigate, or consider evidence for the idea. There are dozens of reasons why we do this. Many times there are multiple reasons combined that cannot be articulated, but we just “know” that an idea is not up for debate or consideration. The problem is, virtually all of these reasons are irrational; based on biases, cognitive effects, heuristics, fallacies; or other obstacles in reason.

      We can, and do, accept ideas without entertaining them. We do this all the time when we trust authority, when we are raised with a certain idea, when we are cognitively exhausted, or if we are gullible and just not very good at critical thinking. While accepting a good idea for a bad reason is better than accepting a bad idea for a bad reason, it’s best to accept a good idea for a good reason. In other words, entertaining the ideas we do accept or thinking critically about them is an important component of reason.

      Back to our opening question. If you were to immediately reject the invitation to attend the presentation by the Neo-Nazi group simply because you think Neo-Nazis are “animals,” you would be refusing to entertain the ideas in what might be a mostly subconscious process. If you were to agree to go but sat through the