Why some narratives are really easy to fall for

Who actually advantages from distant work? Is it true that politicians need to be anti-immigration to win elections? Every episode of Good on Paper, the brand new podcast hosted by my colleague Jerusalem Demsas, delves right into a misunderstood coverage problem that deserves extra nuanced evaluation. I spoke with Jerusalem about how some narratives get lodged within the public’s thoughts and the hazards of tales that really feel true however aren’t.

First, listed here are three new tales from The Atlantic:

A Option to Simplify

Stephanie Bai: Why do you assume sure narratives can grow to be so entrenched, even when the info don’t help them? And why are different narratives extra more likely to fade?

Jerusalem Demsas: Narratives are a method of simplifying a very difficult world. Compelling ones comply with story constructions that we’re used to seeing: a villain and a hero, a foul developer versus a mom who’s struggling to get her children by way of school. These sorts of narratives are compelling as a result of there’s a spark of fact in them, which is that there are energy struggles on this planet; there are winners and losers. Many narratives stick as a result of they reaffirm our personal opinions and views, however that may be actually harmful: Simply because one thing feels true doesn’t imply that it’s.

The narratives that don’t stick are normally those which are extra difficult. There isn’t at all times a clear-cut good man and dangerous man. Usually we’re simply present in programs the place a bunch of individuals act in their very own self-interest; a few of them try to do good, however folks have totally different conceptions of what good is. Attempting to explain a world filled with that type of complexity isn’t as satisfying.

Stephanie: In your latest story about maternal mortality, you discuss concerning the doom-and-gloom framing that activists can use to highlight points. What are a number of the counterproductive penalties of that method that folks may not anticipate?

Jerusalem: There’s this notion, which may be proper within the brief time period, that in the event you say, “A bridge goes to break down,” it’s going to get extra consideration than a report that claims there are some structural deficiencies in America’s infrastructure.

However in the long term, that first framing actually erodes belief between the people who find themselves making an attempt to get consideration for his or her trigger and the people who find themselves making an attempt to triage totally different points. As a result of on the finish of the day, there are finite quantities of time and sources. Coverage makers have to decide on which issues to prioritize, that means that one thing else will lose out. So if established organizations or journalists are always pushing out this narrative that all the pieces’s on fireplace, it impedes coverage makers from making any kind of ordering selections. They may attempt to do all the pieces directly or prioritize the mistaken issues, which may result in chaos.

Stephanie: In your first episode, you focus on a examine that discovered that senior ladies engineers at an unnamed Fortune 500 firm had been extra productive after they labored remotely as a result of they had been spending much less time on mentorship and giving suggestions. However a prevailing narrative that took off in the course of the pandemic is that girls working from house are doubly burdened: They need to juggle little one care and cope with the same old work obligations. As extra analysis will get accomplished on this subject, what are the subsequent questions in your thoughts in the case of how distant work impacts ladies?

Jerusalem: Once we ask, Is distant work working for girls?, we’re additionally asking, Are they fulfilled? Is it true that distant work is making it potential for them to be extra versatile, go choose their children up from faculty, or hang around with their mates of their free time? Additionally, although it’s the case that mentorship is uncompensated by most employers, there’s a whole lot of connection that extra skilled employees derive from that kind of labor. Some folks have responded to my podcast saying that they miss that facet of their work, though they resented not being paid for it.

I believe it’s actually vital to start out from the query: What do we would like work to do for folks’s lives? Does that differ by business?

Stephanie: What’s an concept or narrative that sounded good on paper to you however may not warrant an entire podcast episode?

Jerusalem: The concept that move/fail courses are straightforward and never worrying. I took Mandarin move/fail my senior yr of faculty, pondering it could be a low-stakes method of studying somewhat little bit of an vital language. I ended up within the horrible center area of devoting sufficient time to the category in order to not fail but not devoting sufficient time to really choose up somewhat Mandarin. What do I keep in mind? Wǒ bú huì shuō zhōngwén.

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