Last week, I had the honor of participating in a conference convened by the American Enterprise Institute and Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institute. My fellow speakers included:
Mónica Guzmán, Senior Fellow for Public Practice, Braver Angels
Tim Shriver, Chairman of the Board, Special Olympics
Jeff Rosen, CEO, National Constitution Center
Phil Wallach, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Yuval Levin, Director, Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies, American Enterprise Institute
Martha Minow, 300th Anniversary University Professor, Harvard Law School
The conference’s loose thematic arc began with deescalating individual polarization, then moved to addressing institutional polarization, and concluded with Martha and Yuval sharing their perspectives from the political left and political right.
Having participated in quite a few of these kinds of gatherings, this one stood out as particularly substantive and thought-provoking. You can watch the sessions at the video embedded at the end of this post. But first let me highlight the Dignity Index, a tool that Tim has been helping to develop over the past few years and that I learned about during this conference.
The Dignity Index is a simple eight-point scale that classifies the speech people use on a spectrum. As Tim explains the scale:
On one end of the continuum is treating people with hatred and contempt. When we characterize someone at the lowest level, we will say, “You do not deserve to live. I disagree with you so much. You're an animal, you're subhuman. I don't care whether you survive.” That's a call to violence.
The goal is to move as far away as possible from the low end (contempt) and closer toward the high end (dignity). It focuses not on the substantive viewpoints but on the manner in which speakers convey those viewpoints. Researchers supporting the Dignity Index have begun classifying the campaign language of various political candidates.
You can apply the Dignity Index to your own language as well. Currently, you’ll need to rely on a self-assessment—coding the tone and substance of your own words along the 8-point spectrum. Even better, try it with a friend, especially someone who disagrees with you on important questions. Review together something you’ve written on social media or said in public and see how your words measure on the Dignity Index.
Tim also shared another highly practical use of the Dignity Index: when you receive a fundraising letter from any organization using language in the 1-3 range, put it right in trash.
You can watch the full proceedings of the AEI/Wheatley conference here:
Thank you for sharing. This gives me hope for our country’s future! I’ll help spread the word.