THE RISE OF DIVISIVE COMMUNICATION: Causes and Effects

Black or white. Right and wrong. The world now seems more divided than ever; each side subsists in divided, diametrically-opposed camps – each tribe ferociously sharpening their blades of sciolism and indifference. No longer are there ‘shades of grey‘ and the appreciation nor celebration of precision and accuracy in political discourse and debate.

A question plaguing me for some time now is what has been fuelling the breakdown in communication, understanding, and community togetherness over the last decade or more.

Since the onset of the occupation of Ottawa, my nation’s capital, by a small number of truck drivers, “anti-vaxxers,” anti-maskers, and random American Trump supporters; I’ve noticed friendships and families dissolving quickly, and possibly forever. A follow-up question I have to that is what has ultimately led to such disintegration between knowledge, truth, belief, reason, evidence, and reliability – resulting in a post-truth era.

What follows in this post are some of the processes at play in our minds, the biases inherent to us all. I’ve so humbly attempted to create an initial hypothesis, the initial thoughts as to why some of us have such great difficulty communicating with each other and why so many people in Canada, the U.S., and elsewhere struggle to separate the truth from the spin (or confidence game).

I’ve ranked these in what I believe to be the most common and persistent to the least. With that said, even those at the tail end of the following list are still widely practiced and are causing severe breakdowns in perception and discourse.

Personal Incredulity

Starting off the list is what I believe to be the most common problem that fuels misunderstanding and errors in judgment. The fallacy of personal incredulity occurs when one finds a concept difficult to understand or does not fathom how it works; then, they conclude that it is likely untrue.

Ultimately, because someone doesn’t understand the intricacies of microbiology, virology, and epidemiology, that means either no one can, or it doesn’t exist. The decade of study many of these scientific professionals undergo is immediately set aside. Suddenly, those with little to no training or experience are attempting to dictate policy on complex human health matters.

Information Asymmetry/Incongruity

This process is related to or is an extension of personal incredulity. There is an imbalance because one side has more information than the other; scientists, medical doctors and practitioners, and the policymakers versus the layperson limited to the news and content they are given (or are receptive to). I believe that this results in some distrust and frustration, manifesting in rage and sometimes violence.

Though this is traditionally an economics term, Information asymmetry extends to non-economic behaviour. More commonly known as a contract or economics theory, asymmetric information, also known as “information failure,” occurs when one party to an economic transaction possesses greater material knowledge than the other party. This asymmetry creates an imbalance of power in transactions.

With an unprecedented pandemic like the one, we are presently experiencing, this asymmetry is causing some dangerous feelings of outrage. Our mediocre elected officials aren’t being particularly transparent, nor can they be, given the fluid and dynamic situation. While our non-subject matter experts in elected office are trying to adhere to the advice and guidance of our healthcare professionals, they are also trying to assuage the fears and interests of big business and trade; the engine of our country‘s economy.

Cognitive Dissonance

“The term cognitive dissonance is used to describe the mental discomfort that results from holding two conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes. People tend to seek consistency in their attitudes and perceptions, so this conflict causes feelings of unease or discomfort. This inconsistency between what people believe and how they behave motivates people to engage in actions that will help minimize feelings of discomfort.”¹

In my opinion and experience, this is the most recognizable psychological process most people experience. I think this also flows out of the previous two entries. Without information and the time and space to self-reflect, and the willingness to acknowledge previously held beliefs could have been mistaken, some people fall into this closed loop.

For as many causes of cognitive dissonance there are; forced compliance, new information, and decisions, there are as many influences as well; how highly they value a particular belief, the degree to which their views are inconsistent.

The impact of the cognitive dissonance on each of us results in feelings of anxiety, embarrassment, regret, sadness, shame, and stress. Sadly, some often respond to these feelings by digging in deeper and not exploring possible solutions (through the close examination of how one ended up believing in something despite valid evidence to the contrary).

“There are many ways in which people deal with cognitive dissonance, and sadly it usually results in some adding more supportive beliefs that outweigh dissonant ideas. For example, people who learn that greenhouse emissions result in global warming might experience feelings of dissonance if they drive a gas-guzzling vehicle. They may seek new information that overrides the belief that greenhouse gasses contribute to global warming to reduce this dissonance.”²

The ‘Better-Than-Average’ Effect

I’ve always known or referred to this as the Dunning-Kruger Effect and have talked and written about it in the past at great length.

“In social psychology, illusory superiority is a condition of cognitive bias wherein a person overestimates their qualities and abilities in relation to other people’s same attributes and skills.”³ The better-than-average effect (also known as the Dunning-Kruger effect) is a particular type of social comparison. People compare their characteristics or behaviours against a norm or standard, which is usually the average standing of their peers on the characteristic.

“Illusory superiority is one of many positive illusions relating to the self that is evident in the study of intelligence, the effective performance of tasks and tests, and the possession of desirable personal characteristics and personality traits. Most people rate their abilities as better than “average,” even though it is statistically impossible for most people to have better-than-median abilities. The better-than-average effect is considered one of the most robust of all self-enhancement phenomena (Taylor & Brown, 1988; Sedikides & Gregg, 2003).”⁴

Many experts or regulated professionals in a particular field (medicine or law) will hedge their bets and be deliberate and reluctant in what they say, especially if it could be taken as advice. Many of us have watched fictional characters like TV’s Dr. House, where, through deductive reasoning and underscored by a crushing Vicodin addiction, the fictional character could instantly and squarely diagnose someone from across a room. This is not how medicine works, and this isn’t how most people should offer or receive advice. Yet, because we have access to WebMD and can skim through Google search results without (and prior to) carefully scrutinizing the data and the resulting analysis, we can all operate with the same level of extraordinary exactness of Dr. House (without the patronage of imaginative TV writers).

The Hasty Generalization Fallacy/The Slothful Induction Fallacy

“This fallacy occurs when someone draws broad conclusions based on inadequate or insufficient evidence. In other words, they jump to conclusions about the validity of a proposition with some – but not enough – evidence to back it up and overlook potential counterarguments.”⁵

Two members of my team have become more engaged employees after taking public speaking classes. That proves we should have mandatory public speaking classes for the whole company to improve employee engagement.

An example of The Hasty Generalization Fallacy

This is one of the most common fallacies I see on my Facebook page through comments. Every day, people comment on my posts with their often angry, entrenched comments absent any evidence to support their wild claims. When I make an effort and create the space to engage with them, I usually deploy the Socratic method to inquire about the source or origin of their belief and rarely do (they) provide any consequential rebuttal.

Often what happens is that based on the cognitive processes already discussed, they’ll read something I’ve written or watch a video of mine and set aside any correct information I’ve painstakingly included – either because it disagrees with them or they’re too incensed even to acknowledge the presence of incontrovertible data.

What ultimately ends up happening is that because of their state of mind at the time of posting, they don’t take a moment to review and consider what they are sharing (publicly). The posts are not only rationally and logically unsound, but they also exhibit a fundamental breakdown in syntax, diction, and often context.

“Slothful induction is the exact inverse of the hasty generalization fallacy above. This fallacy occurs when sufficient logical evidence strongly indicates a valid conclusion, but someone fails to acknowledge it, instead attributing the outcome to coincidence or something unrelated entirely.”⁶

Even though every project Brad has managed in the last two years has runway behind schedule, I still think we can chalk it up to unfortunate circumstances, not his project management skills.

An example of The Slothful Induction Fallacy

The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy

“This fallacy gets its colourful name from an anecdote about a Texan who fires his gun at a barn wall and then proceeds to paint a target around the closest cluster of bullet holes. He then points at the bullet-riddled target as evidence of his expert marksmanship.”⁷

Lisa sold her first startup to an influential tech company, so she must be a successful entrepreneur. (She ignores that four of her startups have failed since then.)

An example of The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy

This is closely related to the now-ubiquitous ploy by some to gish gallop. A person initiating or participating in a communication event will move around the goal post while often simultaneously throwing out several ridiculous claims leaving the other person to either walk away from the discussion or to try to hit an ever-moving target.

“Speakers who rely on the Texas sharpshooter fallacy tend to cherry-pick data clusters based on a predetermined conclusion. Instead of letting a full spectrum of evidence lead them to a logical conclusion, they find patterns and correlations supporting their goals and ignore evidence that contradicts them or suggests the clusters weren’t statistically significant.”⁸

When the person attempting to debate or engage with the person deploying this fallacy fails or ultimately gives up, the ‘sharpshooter’ claims victory, not realizing their auspiciously shifting values and minefield of nonsense only exhausted their opponent, and that their spurious triumph was one of mass, not legitimacy.

Stochastic Terrorism

“Since 2018, “stochastic terrorism” has become a popular term used when discussing lone wolf attacks. While the exact definition has morphed over time, it has commonly come to refer to a concept whereby consistently demonizing or dehumanizing a targeted group or individual results in violence that is statistically likely but cannot be easily accurately predicted.”⁹

From Mother Jones, “Over the past four years, numerous perpetrators of threats and violence have directly invoked the president and his rhetoric, and recent gatherings by far-right groups in support of Trump’s efforts to reverse his election defeat have led to beatings, stabbings and a shooting.” Mark Follman, National Affairs Editor for Mother Jones, continues, “It’s a method of political incitement that provokes random acts of extremist violence, in which the instigator uses rhetoric ambiguous enough to give himself and his allies plausible deniability for any resulting bloodshed. Violent threats or attacks linked to the rhetoric usually generate muted denials and equivocal denunciations, or claims to have been “joking,” as Trump and those speaking on his behalf have routinely hidden behind.”¹⁰

Final Thoughts 

All of these processes, theories, or conditions are quite capable of working alone, independently, though more often than not, I believe, unite in some worrisome combination. What we are left within the post-truth era are compartmentalized individuals or communities where their lack of research and combativeness, intellectual lethargy, or all-around philistinism is celebrated and platformed by social media that is unable or unwilling to address the misleading echo chambers of nescience.

In all honesty, I’m not sure how to end this article. I don’t have any easy answers. I don’t think there can be any real help from social media networks that monetize their users’ interactions. They directly and handsomely benefit from how long and emotional their membership gets. I think it is up to all of us to be aware of how our brains work; it’s up to us to be mindful of the biases at play in our minds and how to counter them.

I think educators and those who guide how education is funded and delivered seriously need to set aside the politics and prioritize the health and wellbeing of our community and teach our children basic epistemology skills they’ll need as adults to counter the ubiquity of disinformation out there.

To keep this conversation going, reach out to me on Facebook or Twitter and let me know what you think can be done to better counter disinformation.

I want to thank the following websites and authors for their contributions: Logical Fallacies, Very Well Mind, Hubspot, and Mother Jones.

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