Playing It Safe

Young people entering college since 2013 have fallen victim to "safetyism," says Greg Lukianoff, the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). In the The Coddling of the American Mind, he and psychologist Jonathan Haidt argue that in urging colleges to turn away polarizing speakers or shaming others for ill-considered words, many students treat emotional safety as an absolute right—to the detriment of their own well-being.

How is "safetyism" playing out on college campuses?

Students were once the best constituency for free speech. Around 2013, however, they started more frequently justifying censorship. Essentially, they argued that not using trigger warnings, or not punishing microaggressions, could be—in a medical sense—harmful.

What are some of the downsides of emphasizing safety?

Sometimes efforts to protect have unforeseen negative consequences. This exaggerated, "You're in danger" thinking is unintentionally creating situations where young people feel disempowered and assume everyone has hostile intentions. These maladaptive behaviors are the habits of anxious, depressed people. There's been a rise in anxiety, depression, and suicide among this generation, so we explored the idea that they are actually being taught to be anxious and depressed.

Can't some ideas, such as racist or homophobic ones, be seen as harmful in themselves?

The concept that someone else's idea can harm us—without any action—is troubling. When you do First Amendment work, there's not really a movement in the history of censorship in which people didn't think they were doing something that was fundamentally helpful to the larger society. But constraining the universe of the thinkable makes essential practices like thought experimentation and devil's advocacy, both of which are necessary for the production of more innovative ideas, extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Older and younger people alike seem more polarized than ever.

Our country is increasingly classed into not just regions, but social media networks. On social media, it's easy to depersonalize; when someone is depersonalized, they're easier to dehumanize and treat with scorn. It's like junior high school at its absolute worst—except it's 24 hours a day, and forever.

How can students—and the rest of us—change course?

The intellectual habits cultivated by cognitive behavioral therapy—like giving people the benefit of the doubt or being aware of your confirmation biases—have benefits for mental health, the production of ideas, and, I hope, for combatting polarization and isolation. Knowing how to argue fairly with yourself helps you argue with other people in calmer, more rational ways.