9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I'm starting us out today[br]with a historical mystery. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In 1957 there were two young women, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 both in their 20's, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 both living in the same city, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 both members of the same political group. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That year both decided[br]to commit violent attacks. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 One girl took a gun and approached[br]a soldier at checkpoint. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The other girl took a bomb[br]and went to a crowded café. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But here's the thing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 One of the those girls followed[br]through with the attack, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but the other turned back. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So what made the difference? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I'm a behavioral historian 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I study aggression, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 moral cognition 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and decision-making in social movements. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's a mouthful. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Laughs) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So the translation of that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is I study the moment an individual[br]decided to pull the trigger, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the day-to-day decisions[br]that led up to that moment 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the stories that they tell themselves[br]about why that behavior is justified. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now this topic -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's not just scholarly for me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's actually a bit personal. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I grew up in Kootenai County, Idaho, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and this is very important. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is not the part of Idaho[br]with potatoes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We have no potatoes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And if you ask my about potatoes, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I will find you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Laughter) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This part of Idaho is known[br]for mountain lakes, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 horseback riding, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 skiing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Unfortunately, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 starting in the 1980s, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it also became known[br]as the worldwide headquarters 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for the Aryan nations. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Every year, members of the local[br]neo-Nazi compound 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 would turn out and march through our town, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and every year, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 members from our town[br]would turn out and protest them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, in 2001, I graduated from high school 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I went to college in New York City. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I arrived in August 2001. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 As many of you probably are aware, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 three weeks later, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the Twin Towers went down. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, I was shocked. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I was incredibly angry. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I wanted to do something 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but the only thing that I could think[br]of doing at that time 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was to study Arabic. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I will admit I was that girl in class 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that wanted to know why they hate us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I started studying Arabic[br]for very wrong reasons. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But something unexpected happened. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I got a scholarship to go study in Israel. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So the Idaho girl went to the Middle East. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And while I was there I met[br]Palestinian Muslims, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Palestinian Christians, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Israeli settlers, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Israeli peace activists, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and what I learned is that[br]every act has an ecology. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It has a context. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now since then I have gone[br]around the world, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I have studied violent movements, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I have worked with NGOs 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and ex-combatants in Iraq, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Syria, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Vietnam, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the Balkans, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Cuba. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I earned my PhD in History 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and now what I do is I go[br]to difference archives 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I dig through documents 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 looking for police confessions, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 court cases, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 diaries, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 manifestos of individuals[br]involved in violent attacks. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now you gather all these documents -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 what do they tell you? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Our brains love causal[br]mysteries, it turns out. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Any time we see an attack on the news, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we tend to ask one question: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 why? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Why did that happen? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well, I can tell you I've read[br]thousands of manifestos 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and what you find out is that they[br]are actually imitative; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they imitate the political movement[br]that they're drawing from. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So they actually don't tell us a lot[br]about decision-making 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in that particular case. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we have to teach ourselves to ask[br]a totally different question. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Instead of "Why?" we have to ask "How?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 How did individuals produce these attacks 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and how did their decision-making ecology[br]contribute to violent behavior? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There's a couple things I've learned[br]from asking this kind of question. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The most important thing is that political[br]is not culturally endemic. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We create it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And whether we realize it or not, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 our day-today habits contribute[br]to the creation of violence 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in our environment. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So here's a couple of habits[br]that I've learned contribute to violence. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 One of the first things that attackers did 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when preparing themselves[br]for a violent event 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was they enclosed themselves[br]in an information bubble. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We've heard of fake news, yeah? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well, this shocked me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Every group that I studied[br]had some kind of a fake news slogan. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 French communists [br]called it the "Putrid Press." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The Nationalists called it[br]the "Sellout Press" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the "Treasonous Press." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Islamists in Egypt called it[br]the "Depraved News." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And Egyptian Communists[br]called it "Fake News." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So why do groups spend all this time[br]trying to make these information bubbles? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The answer is actually really simple. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We make decisions based on[br]the information we trust, yeah? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So if we trust bad information, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we're going to make bad decisions. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Another interesting habit[br]that individuals used 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when they wanted[br]to produce a violent attack 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was that they looked at their victim[br]not as an individual 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but just as a number of an opposing team. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now this gets really weird. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There's some fun brain science behind why[br]that kind of brain science is effective. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Say I divide all of you guys[br]into two teams: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 blue team, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 red team. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then I ask you to compete[br]in a game against each other. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well, the funny thing is[br]within milliseconds, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you will actually start[br]experiencing pleasure. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Pleasure when something bad happens[br]to members of the other team. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The funny thing about that is[br]if I ask one of you blue team members 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to go an join the red team, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 your brain recalibates, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and within milliseconds, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you will now start experiencing pleasure 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when bad things happen[br]to members of your old team. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is a really good example[br]of why us/them thinking is so dangerous 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in our political environment. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Another habit that attackers use[br]to kind of rev themselves up for an attack 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was they focused on differences. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In other words, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they looked at their victimes 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they thought "I share[br]nothing in common with that person; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they're totally different than me." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Again, this might sound like[br]a really simple concept, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but there's just some fascinating[br]science behind why this works. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Say I show you guys videos[br]of different colored hands 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and sharp pins being driven[br]into these colored hands, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 OK? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you're white, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the chances are you will experience[br]the most sympathetic activation 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or the most pain 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when you see a pin[br]going into the white hand. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you are Latin American, Arab, Black, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you will probably experience the most[br]sympathetic activation 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 watching a pin going into the hand[br]that looks most like yours. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The good news is that's not[br]biologically fixed. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That is learned behavior. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Which means the more we spend time[br]with other ethnic communities, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the more we see them as similar to us 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and part of our team, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the more we feel their pain. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The last habit[br]that I'm going to talk about 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is when attackers prepare themselves[br]to go out and do one of these events, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they focused on certain emotional cues. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 For months they geared themselves up[br]by focusing on anger cues, for instance. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I bring this up because[br]it's really popular right now. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you read blogs or the news, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you see talk of two concepts[br]from laboratory science: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 amygdala hijacking[br]and emotional hijacking. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, amygdala hijacking. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's the concept that I show you a cue -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 say, a gun -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and your brain reacts with an automatic[br]threat response to that cue. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Emotional hijacking -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's a very similar concept. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's the idea that I show[br]you an anger cue, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for instance, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and your brain will react[br]with an automatic anger response 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to that cue. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I think women usually[br]get this more than men. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Laughs) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That kind of a hijacking narrative[br]grabs our attention -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 just the word 'hijacking"[br]grabs our attention. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The thing is, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 most of the time that's not[br]really how cues work in real life. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you study history, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 what you find is that we are bombarded[br]with hundreds of thousands of cues 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 every day. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And so what we do is we learn to filter. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We ignore some cues; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we pay attention to other cues. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 For political violence[br]this becomes really important, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because what it meant is that attackers[br]usually didn't just see an anger cue 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and suddenly snap. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Instead, politicians, social activists[br]spent weeks, months, years 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 flooding the environment[br]with anger cues, for instance. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And attackers -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they paid attention to those cues, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they trusted those cues, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they focused on them, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they even memorized those cues. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 All of this just really goes to show[br]how important it is to study history. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's one thing to see how cues operate[br]in a laboratory setting. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And those laboratory experiments[br]are incredibly important. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They give us a lot of new data[br]about how our bodies work. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But it's also very important to see[br]how those cues operate in real life. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So what does all this tell us[br]about political violence? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Political violence is not[br]culturally endemic. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It is not an automatic, predetermined[br]response to environmental stimuli. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We produce it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Our everyday habits produce it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Let's go back actually to those two[br]women that I mentioned at the start. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The first woman had been paying[br]attention to those outrage campaigns, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so she took a gun and approached[br]a soldier at a checkpoint. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But in that moment, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 something really interesting happened. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 She looked at that soldier 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and she thought to herself, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "He's the same age as me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He looks like me." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And she put down the gun 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and she walked away 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 just from that little bit of similarity. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The second girl had a totally[br]different outcome. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 She also listened[br]to the outrage campaigns, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but she surrounded herself[br]with individuals 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who were supportive of violence, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with peers who supported her violence. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 She enclosed herself[br]in an information bubble. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 She focused on certain[br]emotional cues for months. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 She taught herself to bypass certain[br]cultural inhibitions against violence. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 She practiced her plan, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 she taught herself new habits 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and when the time came, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 she took her bomb to the café 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and she followed through with that attack. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This was not impulse. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This was learning. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Polarization in our society[br]is not impulse, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's learning. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Every day we are teaching ourselves: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the news we click on, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the emotions that we focus on, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the thoughts that we entertain[br]about the red team or the blue team. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 All of this contributes to learning 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 whether we realize it or not. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The good news 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is that while the individuals[br]I study already made their decisions, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we can still change our trajectory. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We might never make[br]the decisions that they made, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but we can stop contributing[br]to violent ecologies. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We can get out of whatever[br]news bubble we're in; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we can be more mindful[br]about the emotional cues 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that we focus on, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the outrage bait that we click on. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But most importantly, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we can stop seeing each other 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 as just members of the red team[br]or the blue team. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because whether we are Christian, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Muslim, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Jewish, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 aestheist, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Democrat or Republican, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we're human. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We're human beings. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we often share really similar habits. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We have differences. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Those differences are beautiful 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and those differences are very important. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But our future depends on us 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 being able to find common ground[br]with the other side. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that's why it is so, so important[br]for us to retrain our brains 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and stop contributing[br]to violent ecologies. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Thank you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Applause)