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How Stories Spread Conflict: The Face Mask Culture Wars
The voice of reason is entirely missing when stories activate fight or flight. Anything that is perceived as an attack on beliefs, identity or affiliation shuts down cognitive processes and makes collaboration difficult, if not impossible. Narratives reveal core values that have to be addressed for both groups for compromise to be achieved and conflict resolved. There is no “changing the other guy’s mind” when the fundamental worldview is so different. This is true in politics, business negotiations, consume behavior and interpersonal relationships. The solution: Deconstruct the competing narratives to identify the underlying beliefs. The ‘Face Mask Culture War’ isn’t about face masks at all. Compromise can only come from understanding and acknowledging the root motivations of each side and working from there.
COVID-19 has seriously undermined the sense of individual control, increasing feelings of vulnerability and helplessness around the globe. People who prioritize individual freedom will be hypersensitive to anything that feels like a further violation of their agency and freedom. When people are afraid, their cognitions become narrower, reducing issues to binary, on/off, black/white simplistic thinking. It is in this environment that stories targeting fears can root and grow.
