I’m Dr. Ali Mattu.
Why is free speech so hard to hear?
Let’s find out on The Psych Show!
Last week terrorists attacked the French satirical
magazine, Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people.
Regardless of what you think about the magazine,
they drew cartoons and then terrorists killed
people in retaliation for drawing the cartoons.
Those things aren’t equal.
Something that’s come out of this tragedy
is a discussion on what exactly freedom of
speech is.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell
Holmes described it as “the principle of
free thought — not free thought for those
who agree with us but freedom for the thought
that we hate."
That definition resonates with me - legal
protection for ideas that clash with your
beliefs.
THIS IS OFTEN PAINFUL! Free speech protected
neo-Nazis who wanted to march through a neighborhood
of Holocaust survivors. It allows extremists
to picket the funerals of U.S. soldiers. It
gives permission for public Quran burnings.
But without free speech, the government would
get to decide what you can and can’t say.
THAT’S A HORRIBLE IDEA! Limits to free speech
only benefit people who are in power. To paraphrase
the founder of the ACLU, “In order to defend
the ideas you like, you have to defend the
ideas you hate.”
So to live in a free society, you have to
deal with ideas that are going to upset you.
What happens to your brain when this happens?
To answer to this question, I’m going to
tell you my favorite story from psychology.
Back in the 1950s there was a cult called
“the Seekers”. They were led by Marian
Keech who claimed to be receiving messages
from aliens telling her Earth would be destroyed
on December 21st, 1954. Keech said that her
followers would be saved on midnight right
before the word ended. Lots of people believed
Keech and gave up their lives to become a
"Seeker".
Dr. Leon Festinger was a psychologist who
became interested in this story and infiltrated
the cult. He was there on December 21st, when
the Earth was supposed to be destroyed. What
happened? Midnight came and went – the Earth
was still there and no one was beamed up by
aliens. How did the Seekers see the situation?
Did the Seekers believe they followed a fraud?
NO! They thought God was so impressed with
their prayers that he saved the world.
The moral of this story? Your brain attacks
information that conflicts with your beliefs,
just like your immune system fights off viruses.
Through a series of experiments, Dr. Festinger
developed cognitive dissonance theory. Basically,
we’re always working to be consistent with
the things we believe. When something challenges
our beliefs, like a lot of free speech does,
we find a way to make the threatening information
less of a threat. Why does this happen? We're
not Vulcans. Our psychology isn't based on
logic, it's based on emotion and the same
emotions that make us run away from real dangers
make us run away from dangerous ideas. 
By the time you hear ideas that conflict with
your point of view, your mind has already
started fighting them off.
The opposite happens when you’re around
people who share your beliefs. The more you
hear stuff you believe, the more radical your
beliefs become. Psychologists call this group
polarization. That’s why democrats and republicans
can’t seem to agree on anything anymore.
It’s also how terrorism develops in remote
parts of the world. The internet has made
it easier for this happen — we follow people
who share our worldview, reject those who
challenge them, and customize our newsfeed
to our own biases. 
If free speech is designed to protect a diversity
of ideas and our brains are wired to protect
our own beliefs, then is it possible to have
a real dialogue about the big issues impacting
the world? 
ABSOLUTELY! 
Challenge group polarization by spending time
with people who have different beliefs than
yours. This will decrease how defensive your
brain is hearing their ideas.
Once you know where the other person is coming
from, then you can share your thoughts and
ideas in a way that resonates with their beliefs.
This turns out to be the key to real, meaningful
dialogue — hearing information that syncs
with your background. Researchers have found
that if you talk about climate change in the
context of reducing pollution, most republicans
will shut down. But framing it in the context
of creating more nuclear power plants opens
up discussion.
Freedom of speech isn’t enough to create
real dialogue. All those issues that keep
coming up, gun control, climate change, healthcare,
national security, where’re never going
to make any progress on any of them until
we’re able to sit down, understand each
other, and talk in a way that makes sense
with the other person’s worldview.
That’s why my favorite response to the Charlie
Hebdo tragedy is this cartoon from arab cartoonist
Emad Hajjaj titled “Pen is stronger than
bullets”.
Click on the Bill of Rights for more psychology.
