Psychologist Jonathan Haidt talks social media, free speech at UNC

Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and researcher at New York University, spoke at a Feb. 7 lecture.

The event was co-sponsored by the Student Free Speech Alliance, UNC Alumni Free Speech Alliance, Heterodox Heels and the UNC Program for Public Discourse. Titled “Academia and the Anxious Generation: How Universities Lost the Trust of America,” the lecture focused on dynamics within U.S. universities and their relationship with free speech.

“The classroom is a place where we want to build cultural, political and social understanding,” Harrington Shaw, president of the SFSA, said. “And we think that a very important part of that means engaging in conversations that are uncomfortable and across differences.”

The event began with Haidt discussing the rise of anxiety and depression since 2012. He said rates have tripled since then, according to a study from the American College Health Association.

In 2014, he said, universities saw a sudden increase in students entering their studies in what he described as a “defense mode.” This phenomenon, Haidt said, is not due to living in a more dangerous world than prior generations did, but due to living in a digital world.

“A normal part of being an American college student now is that you are anxious and depressed,” he said.

After discussing mental health, Haidt switched to the main focus of his lecture, a lack of free speech in universities. He began by defining the tenets that universities should uphold: truth, light and freedom.

“When you focus on identity, you lose academic excellence,” Haidt said, adding that diversity is not incompatible with good university structure.

Haidt went on to say that work by the philosopher Plato used to be praised in academia as “provocative.” Now, he said, being provocative is dangerous. Haidt described the ease of "cancel culture" on social media as similar to handing everyone dart guns and saying “shoot, shoot, shoot.” 

Shaw said he felt students should engage in open dialogue more often, as it might change students' minds or allow them to try to change the speaker's. He said he has a similar idea about the importance of free speech. 

“We want to make sure that people understand the idea that ideas should be confronted with other ideas, not with violence or suppression,” he said.

Emma Cecchini, a UNC first-year and anthropology major, said she came to the event because she had read Haidt’s book "The Righteous Mind" for her Ideas, Information and Inquiry course. Cecchini said she disagreed with Haidt’s argument that declines in mental health were solely due to a rise in technology.

Cecchini said she disagreed with a lot of Haidt’s points. She said she thought Haidt was making very broad generalizations, even though there may be other issues responsible for declining mental health.  

“To me, I felt like it was a person from an older generation who's talking about things that maybe he doesn't quite comprehend. And he's blaming problems on either technology and social justice — which, I don't necessarily think that all the problems should be blamed on these things,” she said.

Haidt concluded the talk by criticizing university leaders around the United States for not standing up against cancel culture for their professors.

“I think there are many schools that cannot reverse course,” Haidt said. “UNC is not one of them. UNC really can lead the way and do a great job.”

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