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How do we recognize when our moral anger is being manipulated for engagement? What happens when outrage becomes less about justice and more about belonging? What would it look like to move beyond clickbait outrage and turn outraged energy into real, aligned action?
In this podcast episode, Joe Sanok speaks about moving beyond outrage with Dr. William J. Brady.
Podcast Sponsor: Headway
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Meet Dr. William J. Brady
William J. Brady is an Assistant Professor of Management & Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, with a courtesy appointment in the Psychology Department at Northwestern University and affiliation with the Institute for Policy Research. He researches how human psychology and digitally-mediated social environments interact—especially focusing on emotions, morality, and algorithm-driven social networks—using behavioral experiments, big data, and natural-language processing methods.
William holds a B.A. in Psychology & Philosophy from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from New York University, and post-doctoral training at Yale University.
Visit William’s website and connect on LinkedIn.
In This Podcast
- Moral outrage as a social currency
- The function of outrage in human evolution
- Navigating lines in the sand during crises
- Moving beyond clickbait outrage and into aligned action
- Dr. William Brady’s advice to private practitioners
Moral outrage as a social currency
Most people are familiar with the fact that humanity has a strong tendency to find a group to identify with, whether that’s a political stance, a friend group, or any type of social group in general. People know that there is safety in numbers, and they want to be included as well as part of what’s going on around them.
However, it is this tendency that can grow so strong that it pushes people against one another, even though they are part of the same overall community and group: humanity.
As soon as you start to identify yourself in these group boundaries, you end up falling into certain ways of thinking that tend to prioritize your group identity. It turns out that if you express outrage toward another group, it’s a very easy way for you to signal to your group that you are a serious and genuine group member. (Dr. William Brady)
This is the way in which outrage becomes social currency: when you show outrage towards another group, people within your group will see you as a committed member. It is this social currency buys you “reputational points” in certain contexts.
The function of outrage in human evolution
It turns out that if you want to have a small group that operates well, which is very important for survival … What outrage is really good at, and there [are] lots of small group studies … you can use outrage to sanction people to make it costly for them to violate cooperation … Punishment through more outrage ends up establishing cooperation over time. (Dr. William Brady)
If used at a low interval or frequency rate, outrage can function as a tool to establish and maintain cooperation, as it has historically and evolutionarily been used in the past throughout human history.
However, in our modern digital environment, where our networks have exploded in size and connect us socially with the rest of the world, the frequency of outrage has increased, which has ultimately reduced its function. It no longer establishes cooperation, and instead fosters an environment that seems to be perpetually negative.
There’s a discrepancy between the environment in which some of our primal emotions developed, compared to [where we are] now, and that plays a role in some of what we see online. (Dr. William Brady)
Navigating lines in the sand during crises
Algorithms are often making salient, or uprating content from people who are more extreme in their political leanings, and the reason is that when you see someone say something outrageous, lots of people engage with that. (Dr. William Brady)
Polls have shown that people on either side of political extremes often both denounce violence and killings, and atrocities, but the content that is commonly at the surface of digital discussions makes it seem as if each side is cheering the atrocities on.
This is because these algorithms are designed to get people commenting, sharing, and engaging with posts, and the way to boost engagement is to spike outrageousness to get people riled up.
I think it’s really important to consider that what you see online is partially a function of what the algorithms are pushing because of the fact that they tend to draw engagement for various reasons. (Dr. William Brady)
Moving beyond clickbait outrage and into aligned action The oversaturation of outrage and alarmist media throughout our digital spaces over a prolonged period of time has physiological implications.
You can be politically active and socially aware while understanding that modern media is designed to encourage engagement using psychological tools like outrage, so taking a step back, or finding new ways to stay informed, is okay – even encouraged.
One of the things that I recommend … is if you really want to stay politically active but you feel exhausted by social media feeds, turn to local community because local community doesn’t give you that exhaustion. It gives you a sense of belonging, and it gives you the sense of, “Hey, maybe we could actually do something here to have some impact.” (Dr. William Brady)
Some of Dr. Brady’s tips on how to stay engaged but guard yourself from being flooded by media outrageous oversaturation are:
- Join a local community or project
- Understand that social media isn’t what it seems
- To take breaks from social media regularly
- Use your outrage to motivate you to see and act on creating real change
[Find] that balance between … “Whatever my view is, can [outrage] motivate me to want to see change in ways that lead to cooperation with my political group to try to raise our voices?” compared to, “Is it leading to hatred, is it leading to hate speech?” … Or your own psychological exhaustion? I think reflecting and seeing where I am on that spectrum is a really good first step to identify that. (Dr. William Brady)
There is a way to be outraged in a way that serves the community and the common good.
When you talk about outrage, you have to talk about what is happening: is it being used to raise awareness and take aligned action, or as ragebait to distract people away from the common issue?
Dr. William Brady’s advice to private practitioners
The digital environment that we’re all living in today is omnipresent, but it is not always representative of reality.
The digital world is not an accurate representation of our real experience. Keep this distinction in mind, because it can go a long way in keeping exhaustion at bay and maintaining morale.
Books mentioned in this episode:
Yuval Noah Harari – Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
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Useful links mentioned in this episode:
- Check out our Practice Academy!
- Visit William’s website and connect on LinkedIn.
- Sign Up to the Group Practice Boss Conference!
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Meet Joe Sanok
Joe Sanok helps counselors to create thriving practices that are the envy of other counselors. He has helped counselors to grow their businesses by 50-500% and is proud of all the private practice owners who are growing their income, influence, and impact on the world. Click here to explore consulting with Joe.
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