In many Western democracies, public opinion seems to have become bitterly divided over increasingly divisive topics like immigration, Brexit, and the qualities of Donald J. Trump. People whose convictions are strongly opposed to each other treat discussions as duels or shouting matches. We are now used to\u00a0observing\u00a0debates where participants are quick to resort to insults and are aggressive or\u00a0patronizing, constantly speaking over each other.\u00a0This pugilistic approach to discussion does not further understanding. After all the shouting is done, hardly anyone has changed their mind; if anyone has, they are unlikely to have gained any good reasons in support of the novel opinion, or that undermine the older conviction. Many in the audience may simply be put off by the whole affair.<\/p>\n
We may agree that this is not a satisfactory state of affairs but what can be done about it? One thing we may try to encourage people to be less arrogant.<\/p>\n
Our project brings together philosophers, social psychologists and experts in the analysis of the verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication to test the hypothesis that arrogance is an expression of defensiveness. Arrogant people may perceive many situations as threatening and respond to them by adopting a fight response. Hence, they are aggressive, prone to anger and to shouting others down. We plan to recruit over the next few months over one 100 community members, to ask them about their attitudes toward a number of topics, and to ascertain whether their attitudes are defensive. We shall also find out about their levels of self-esteem. Subsequently, we will ask them to debate controversial topics in small groups. After an analysis of the recordings of the debates, we shall explore whether those participants that were shown to be defensive and have high self-esteem exhibited arrogant behaviours.<\/p>\n
If this hypothesis is shown to be correct, we can lessen arrogance by helping people become less defensive. Counterintuitively, perhaps, we can make arrogant people who are already full of themselves less arrogant by making them reflect on what they care about and why those things are worthy of being valued. Reflection on the importance of the things one cares about should contribute to strengthening a sense of self-worth. Paradoxically, therefore, we aim to make arrogant people less full of themselves by making them feel good about themselves. We will keep you informed about our research progress and related topics in these pages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In many Western democracies, public opinion seems to have become bitterly divided over increasingly divisive topics like immigration, Brexit, and the qualities of Donald J. Trump. People whose convictions are […]","protected":false},"author":1319,"featured_media":29,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24],"tags":[4,29,33,27,5,26,30,31,7,9,25,32,28],"custom_author":[75],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-changing-attitudes","tag-arrogance","tag-brexit","tag-communication","tag-community","tag-debate","tag-defensive","tag-immigration","tag-philosophy","tag-politics","tag-public","tag-self-esteem","tag-social-psychology","tag-trump","custom_author-tanesini-alessandra"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8KPlM-14","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":112,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/collaboration-versus-point-scoring\/","url_meta":{"origin":66,"position":0},"title":"Collaboration versus point scoring","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"June 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Monday we held the first workshop associated with the project Changing Attitudes in Public Debate. The workshop was by invitation and designed to bring together some philosophers, social psychologists and linguists that analyse the verbal and non-verbal aspects of conversations. The main aim was to figure out whether there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Changing Attitudes"","block_context":{"text":"Changing Attitudes","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/changing-attitudes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/06\/insensitivejpg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/06\/insensitivejpg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/06\/insensitivejpg.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":365,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/arrogance-and-the-space-of-reasons\/","url_meta":{"origin":66,"position":1},"title":"Arrogance and the Space of Reasons","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"January 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 A democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoining communicated experience. ---John Dewey[1] \u00a0 One of the truly baffling things about the Trump era in the United States is that just when you think our political life could not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Open for Debate"","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2018\/01\/Hawk.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2018\/01\/Hawk.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2018\/01\/Hawk.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":149,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/arrogant-pride-and-alternative-facts\/","url_meta":{"origin":66,"position":2},"title":"Arrogant Pride and Alternative Facts","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"July 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Pride...is a very common failing\" (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice). What Austen calls \"pride\" is these days better described as arrogant pride to distinguish it from the rightful pride of those opposing discrimination on the basis of race, gender or sexual orientation. Austen characterises it as \"a feeling of self-complacency\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Open for Debate"","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/07\/Alternative_facts_are_falsehoods.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/07\/Alternative_facts_are_falsehoods.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/07\/Alternative_facts_are_falsehoods.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/open-for-debate\/","url_meta":{"origin":66,"position":3},"title":"We are now open for debate","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"May 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to 'Open for Debate', a blog associated with the project Changing Attitudes in Public Discourse.\u00a0We hope to use this space to debate all aspects and forms of debate. 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During the summer of 2017 I conducted a research project into transcription methods for multimodal discourse, contributing to the Changing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Open for Debate"","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2018\/03\/4244624289_70b27dc8a6_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":163,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/hubris-as-prime-ministerial-vice\/","url_meta":{"origin":66,"position":5},"title":"Hubris as Prime Ministerial Vice","author":"Ian Kidd","date":"July 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"When Theresa May\u2019s snap election backfired decimating her majority, many commentators were quick to use a language of vices to describe her errors. \u2018May\u2019s astounding arrogance has now paved the way for another General Election\u2019, complained the Independent, echoing attacks by the Guardian and Mirror of the various forms of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Open for Debate"","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/07\/Paradise_Lost_12-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/07\/Paradise_Lost_12-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/07\/Paradise_Lost_12-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/07\/Paradise_Lost_12-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/04\/stop-1616145_1920.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/90"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}