Jonathan Haidt, professor of ethical leadership at the New York University Stern School of Business and author of "The Righteous Mind," spoke about safe spaces on American campuses at a lecture Thursday.
In his speech, Haidt addressed what he perceived as a growing culture of academic censorship and lack of ideological diversity on campuses. He cited recent research demonstrating that university faculty lean increasingly to the left, with the polarization as serious as 60 to 1 at Brown University. He argued that social justice movements on college campuses are a deviation from the aims of scholarship, and encouraged his audience to embrace viewpoint diversity and debate topics.
“Safety culture is debilitating," Haidt said. "If you see signs of it here at Duke, run like hell. Or better yet, argue against it.”
He noted that although social justice movements seek to achieve equality, scholarship aspires not for equality but for truth. Drawing on studies in moral psychology, Haidt explained that people typically "see what they want to see,” and ideological leanings can color interpretations of reality.
Haidt also criticized the impact that safety culture has had on campus, citing intellectual fragility and a fear of disagreement.
“Professors are increasingly afraid of students," he said. "Professors all over the country are pulling videos, pulling material. They’re not presenting things that might be provocative, because what if a student feels victimized by hearing that?”
He noted that our beliefs become more resilient and better substantiated through exposure to dissent and discouraged students from "embracing a marginalized identity," which "just makes you more fragile and morally dependent, and less likely to thrive after leaving the bubble of safety."
In addition, Haidt told the audience not to conflate correlation and causation when looking at apparent differences in welfare for minority groups which have historically experienced discrimination.
Haidt concluded his lecture with a call for Duke students to propose that Duke underscore its commitment to viewpoint diversity.
“Only when you commit to truth can you actually achieve justice,” he said.
The audience generally responded favorably to the lecture.
“I really enjoyed the talk. Actually it’s what I’ve been thinking about a lot since I’ve been here at Duke. I have read his book before and I really enjoyed it and that’s why I came," first-year Jonathan Michala said.
Elizabeth Beckman, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, noted that she was expecting more of an inflammatory response from the audience, and that she thought there might have been more pushback at UNC, where there is a large social justice community.
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