The Campaign Company specialises in social research and behaviour change. This is your guide to what we’ve been reading. Here’s what’s coming up this week:
Hello and welcome to the TCC Weekly – the Friday bulletin for people who know their Samurai from their Bellevue.
This week, we uncover why last week’s General Election points to the beginning of the UK’s own ‘culture wars’ and bring you some top tips to stop someone with verbal diarrhoea in their tracks. Plus, our heads turned by the warm weather, we’ve got the value – or should we say Values – of those who love nudist beaches, as we ask whether it’s Pioneers, Prospectors, or Settlers who are most likely to want to undress in public.
If you see a link that belongs in The Weekly then email it to us and we’ll give you a free TCC exclamation mark to say thanks. Meanwhile, if you’re interested to see the mad, marvellous and missable articles featured in previous editions just click here for the full back catalogue.
‘Empathy day’
It was #EmpathyDay on Tuesday, the day for putting yourself in others’ shoes. But to what extent is empathy the solution? The book Against Empathy takes the controversial line that the empathy gets in the way of rationality, and leads to myopia. Others, like Stephen Pinker, say the same.
This blog, meanwhile, looks at the topic of empathy, and how you change attitudes to race. Is empathising with a racist the same as agreeing? It concludes, “While it isn’t our responsibility to engage racist attitudes, it is only through an empathetic understanding of the roots of racism that we can begin to push back.”
That is certainly close to the approach we have been advocating for some years. We believe that you need to feel enough empathy to understand others, and establish rapport to give a platform to successfully make rational and factual arguments stick.
On the topic, the American Center for Talent Innovation released new research about diversity in the work place this week (here’s your free exclamation mark Trevor Phillips ‘!’). The infographic below suggests the importance of the workplace in a climate where different groups often still don’t live together.
‘Shifting political divides’
For those who haven’t noticed, there was an election last week, hence our shorter Weekly! Charlie’s Attic today includes a bumper selection of memes and miscellany, from what was a widely unexpected outcome.
In the context of our hung parliament it’s interesting to revisit our own take on the election (see here on our website and here, on The Staggers, where it first featured). Much as we’d love to claim we’d ‘called’ this election, our own view – that Settlers would stick by May – was overtaken by other factors. But a recent Economist blog, asking whether the culture wars have arrived in Britain, made us wonder if the thrust of our concluding argument had something to it:
If Settlers continue to opt overwhelmingly for the perceived national and cultural security offered by the Conservatives, then that would be a major shift. This is especially true if – as polling since we did our analysis suggests – young, affluent and urbane Pioneers reject this. Supplemented by the more liberal Prospectors, it seems they are packing in behind a Labour Party wooing students and cosmopolitans. If it continues then we could be looking at the first election to be fought and won on the basis of ‘values’ rather than ‘interests’.
With Labour winning Kensington and losing Mansfield, we flatter ourselves that there’s a grain of truth to this analysis.
As our guide sets out, at its most basic “engagement is about creating dialogue.” To have a conversation, both sides need to be good listeners. But what if the other party doesn’t even let you speak, let alone take what you have to say seriously? In other words, how do you even begin to deal with that person who goes on and on and won’t let you get a word in edgeways.
In comes this piece by blogger Rose Eveleth, which’ll have you laughing out loud from beginning to end. It’s packed with top tips to disarm people we might label ‘chronic over-talkers’. It’s set in the context of talk radio, but a lot of this applies to everyday situations.
Our favourite tip is...
the Question Sneak Attack. While your monologuer is talking, say over them “Jim (or whatever their name is), can I ask you something?” This often makes them stop, or at least wrap up their thought. Because there’s nothing better for an over-talker than you asking them a question. When they do stop, you don’t, in fact, ask a question. Instead, you make your point. Every time someone successfully executes off the Question Sneak Attack on the radio I high five myself.
Obviously, the piece is light-hearted, and most engagement doesn’t go like this. But it’s interesting to hear the author’s advice on not getting bulldozed when the engagement gloves come off. Click here to read more.
Also this week, Read Simon Parker’s blog on applying the theory of good engagement to the practicalities of local government, based on his own experiences.
The Values Lab is based on the Values Modes segmentation tool – created by Cultural Dynamics and used by TCC– which divides the population into ethics-driven Pioneers, aspirational Prospectors, and threat-wary Settlers. Take the test here to see which you are.
'Naked ambition'
A 23-year old woman caused uproar in Jerusalem this week, after she stripped herself naked in front of the Western Wall before police rapidly escorted her away from the ancient site of worship.
The act of being or not being naked is laden with symbolism. To religious conservatives, nakedness is improper and the proper thing is to always be discrete. Others relish in breaking with traditions and exposing themselves – think nudist beaches, say.
So how does this all hold up when we looked at it from the vantage point of Values Modes? We whipped on our lab coats and looked at extent of agreement with this statement:
“I want complete openness and freedom for the whole of society, so that everyone can express themselves. I really enjoy the feeling of walking around with no clothes on”.
% of each values group who agree with the statement
Pioneers
Prospectors
Settlers
Whole population
Not at all like me/not like me
41%
30%
50%
39%
A little like me
24%
25%
22%
23%
Quite like me/like me
29%
38%
24%
31%
Very much like me
6%
7%
3%
6%
We find what we might expect with rules-bound Settlers: there is an aversion to the statement.
Prospectors – who value individual agency above most else – over-index, with nearly half agreeing with the statement. Interestingly, Pioneers (who might most closely associate with, say, nudist beaches) are more split. This is probably down to their sense of respect for other people’s traditions – in other words, they may be pre-empting how Settlers feel.
And, of course, there’s Charlie’s Attic, where naked ambition and naked flames do battle with one another:
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