Wellesley College, Patriotism, Social Anxiety

Interview at Wellesley, new article in the Boston Globe, links and recommendations

You can now watch my recent conversation at Wellesley College with Professor Liza Oliver at an event titled “Class, Status, and Luxury Beliefs”:

---

The Psychology of Social Status:

My new lecture series “The Psychology of Social Status” is now available exclusively at Peterson Academy.

I delivered six lectures in front of a live studio audience, exploring the psychology of social status, examining its evolutionary roots, developmental origins, and the fundamental role it plays in shaping human behavior. We examine individual differences in status-seeking, the evolutionary reasons behind status pursuit, and the complex relationships between status, envy, emotions, and intrasexual competition for romantic partners. We also investigate the dynamics of social status in relation to stories, plot lines, and arenas of competition, and conclude by discussing the concept of luxury beliefs and their impact on society.

Enroll here for immediate access.

A still image from my lecture series:

---

Boston Globe

Here’s my latest piece in my regular monthly column at The Boston Globe:

A lot of Trump voters saw more light than darkness in his message

Excerpt:

What drew many voters to Trump may not have been his brash style, threats, or dark warnings of national demise and criminal immigrants. It might instead have been his pledges, be they real or bluster, to restore American global economic and military dominance, to help people to get rich, and to make patriotism cool again.

For those Trump voters, as Harvey Mansfield, a Harvard professor emeritus of government, suggested at a recent post-election seminar, “Make America Great Again” wasn’t just a Trump branding device. It was a distillation of what they wanted from government.

Data reveals that this aspirational message resonates across demographic lines. Pew polls from this year show that most Americans, including 80 percent of Asians, 68 percent of whites, 66 percent of Hispanics, and 63 percent of Blacks, believe they have achieved or are on their way to achieving the American Dream. The idea that the United States is a land of opportunity is a bedrock belief for many Americans.

This view is at odds with what many in the affluent, college-educated base of the Democratic Party believe.

[…]

While only 34 percent of progressive activists say they are “proud to be American,” much higher shares of Hispanics (76 percent), Blacks (70 percent), and Asians (62 percent) express pride in their country. For these Americans, patriotism and belief in opportunity remain core values. Yet these views became less central to the Democratic Party’s messaging, which increasingly focused on boutique cultural concerns over broad, unifying principles. That disconnect poses a challenge for a party that seeks to win elections.

For a generation, Democrats have confidently predicted that they are on the brink of an era of electoral dominance.

Despite these projections, though, a long-term Democratic majority remains elusive. Under Trump, Republicans have made unprecedented gains among nonwhite voters. Exit-poll data from the recent presidential election show that Trump won nearly half of Latino men and about 20 percent of Black men — groups that have historically voted for Democrats.

[…]

In one extreme case, progressives helped birth a self-defeating slogan: “Defund the police,” which in 2021 was far more popular among white liberals than among Black and Hispanic voters. Black Democrats were more than twice as likely (70 percent) as white Democrats (34 percent) to agree that reducing crime should be a top priority. A 2023 survey showed that among registered Democrats, 64 percent of those without college degrees say that crime is “a very big problem” compared with only 37 percent of college graduates, who are more likely to live in safe neighborhoods.

Hectoring from progressives about “toxic masculinity” probably also alienated many men, including some of the Democratic Party’s most reliable voters, Black and Hispanic men. A recent Pew survey found that nearly half of Black Democratic men and 39 percent of Hispanic Democratic men identify as “highly masculine.” This is a contrast to the 22 percent of white Democratic men who rate themselves as highly masculine.

Do read the whole thing here.

---

Links and recommendations:

• Contrary to Media Myth, U.S. Urban Crime Rates Are Up by Jeffrey H. Anderson

• The Human Toll of “Wokeness” by Andrew Hartz

• On attraction and love by Dorian Minors

• A New Understanding of How Social Anxiety Operates by Todd Kashdan

• Millennials Will Age Terribly by Chris Jesu Lee

• Americans Just Said No to Drugs by Charles Fain Lehman

• A Graveyard of Bad Election Narratives by Musa al-Gharbi

• The Mainstreaming of Loserdom by Tell The Bees

  • When I came of age in the 2000s and 2010s, the most common reply to the question of "What are you up to later/today/this weekend/etc" was "Hanging out with friends." People gave this answer even when they weren't, in fact, hanging out with friends. Being socially isolated was stigmatized and you were weird if you just wanted to rot alone. One of the biggest cultural shifts of the last 10-15 years is how normalized being alone has become among young people

• Follow me on Instagram here. The platform is less volatile and more chill than Twitter/X, so I post some spicier excerpts from my readings on my IG stories

• You can follow me on TikTok here

---

Three interesting findings:

1. 70% of women say a married man who has an affair is always morally wrong, while 56% say the same for married women. 53% of men say it is always morally wrong for a woman to have an affair, while 61% say the same for men. (source).

2. Open plan office noise increased negative mood by 25 percent and sweat response by 34 percent (source). Compared with workers in cubicles, workers in open-plan offices had 62 percent more days of sickness absence (source).

3. % of U.S. men who have served in the military (source):

Silent/Greatest Generation: 48 percent

Baby Boomers: 21 percent

Gen X: 9 percent

Millennials: 4 percent