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Part 2: Obstacles to Anti-TPP Coordination: A Social Psychological Account


Ian Hansen
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To the extent any evil calls for passionate resistance, and any good calls for passionate support, the TPP looks like an evil that warrants resistance because it attacks several important goods at once. Chances are, though, your passions up to now have drawn your interest and labors to just one or two of these important goods, if they've drawn you to any of them at all.

Being passionately engaged against all evils at all times (or for all goods at all times) isn't practical. We're a species composed of quasi-independent beings who exist in time, experience their consciousness from only one body each, have to sleep for several hours a day, and have all kinds of other things to do--like work for a living, eat, drink, excrete, manage sexual desire, maintain relationships, overcome existential challenges, etc.

Cognitive miserliness

All of these existence-related competitors for our attention, time and energy make the attempt to reduce noise something of a survival skill. And, indeed, most human beings show clear affection for simplicity, parsimony, and brevity.

Most people can't process long, complex stories as easily as they can process short, simple ones. This is because, as social psychologists have long noted, people are "cognitive misers." They think as little as they have to in order to make the most optimal decisions they can with their limited time and resources.

How is this relevant to the TPP?  Let's put it this way: Do you want to fight against a bill that (1) tramples on ONE principle you're passionate about, or against a bill that (2) tramples on two or three principles you're passionate about to different degrees as well as several other principles you kind of agree with but don't think about much, and a few you could care less about or even side with the bill about? Those attentive to our cognitive miserliness would guess that people are likely to be more aroused to focused outrage and action by (1) than by (2) most of the time.

Anti-TPP AIDS demonstrators
Anti-TPP AIDS demonstrators
(Image by tradejustice.net)
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So when you sit down to compose an activism-arousing message, finding a way to get it rolling around in the minds of those who receive it is a tough task. Regarding the TPP, if you write out everything that's either definitely wrong or likely to be wrong with the trade deal (and with the fast-tracking process to ensure its easy passage), you have an inevitably long and complex story just because there's so much to tell.

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Ian Hansen is an Associate Professor of psychology and the 2017 president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility.

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