It’s the Lessons You Don’t Learn and What You Don’t Know That Matter Most
Between the inability to see much less articulate their own prejudices (to allay their own cognitive dissonance?) and the disinterest in getting to know the whole story it is difficult to see how the new Neo-Sociopsychology Plan can substantively differ or succeed where other comparable plans have failed.
To be fair, Aronson et al do “get it” when it comes to acknowledging that some programmatic solutions just don’t work. Social psychology has several times confirmed, for example, that forcing people to sit and talk together about prejudice is not only unlikely to solve the problem but also to make it worse. The famous, though problematic, Robbers Cave Experiment (The Robbers Cave Experiment: Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation, by Muzafer Sherif, O.J. Harvey, B. Jack White, Wesleyan University Press, 1988) did tease out two dynamics that are still relevant in the conversation about prejudice.
The first was the finding that forcing opposing and mutually prejudiced groups to be together and to talk together about their differences more often results in reinforcing the differences and the antagonisms rather than ameliorating or eliminating them. A finding which Neo-sociopsychologists seem to have overlooked or minimized in their championing of precisely that technique in their great plan for improving society.
The other relevant finding was that what did seem to meaningfully lessen prejudice, and increase mutual respect, although apparently only situationally, was getting diverse groups to work on solving a common problem together. It was also recognized that the problem had to constitute a substantial threat to both groups, especially their collective safety or existence. The conclusion was that only a ‘real world’ peril would be enough to engage all concerned. Then there’s the problem of continually coming up with problems that meet the required criteria.
To be fair, the experiment was criticized as much as it was celebrated, and the criticisms eventually caused the Robbers Cave experience findings to be abandoned by their authors. One positive outcome was that Elliott Aronson picked up on enough of this event to eventually mold his own variant (which he claimed was “invented” by himself and his students) – that he called The Jigsaw Technique. This teaching technique continues to be used by some educational institutions under some circumstances and it is seen as a teaching function.
It is partly the intention of the balance of this article to show how in not following through on the potential learning above, and in remaining incognizant (intentionally or not) of, among other things, the relevant information to follow leaves Neo-sociopsychologists susceptible to criticisms of technique, intention, and authority.
