Jonathan Haidt wrote in a 2022 essay that the Framers “were excellent social psychologists.” They knew a democracy rests on its people’s judgment, and that judgment can run hot. A delegate’s notes record James Madison telling the Convention in 1787 that a people may want checks “against the turbulency and weakness of unruly passions.” In Federalist No. 10 he called the causes of faction “sown in the nature of man.”
They built a republic that is slow on purpose. The design, Haidt writes, was to “slow things down, cool passions, require compromise.” It also shielded leaders from “the mania of the moment” while voters judge them on Election Day. The features are under Constitutional Republic.
Haidt’s claim is that social media stripped the cooling away when platforms added the tools of virality, from 2009 to 2012. Anger moves faster than institutions can absorb it. The mechanics are under Viral Truth, The Perception Gap, and Perception Management. His warning: “If we do not make major changes soon, then our institutions, our political system, and our society may collapse.”
I agree with Haidt, though the evidence is mixed and we may both be wrong.
A 2017 study found polarization grew most among the groups least likely to use social media, such as Americans over 65. Haidt’s reply to a related study is that his claim concerns a sudden shift in the early 2010s, which decades-long trend lines cannot show.
The finding surprises me, and I have no full answer to it yet.
Haidt names three kinds of reform: harden democratic institutions, reform social media, and prepare the next generation. I back all three and would add two.
The first he practices without listing it. When people like him speak out calmly, with evidence, they build the critical mass that change needs. That is the duty to speak, with civility.
The second may be controversial. Slowness served the republic well. So far we have managed to “keep it”, in Franklin’s phrase. But slowness cannot be the whole answer as technology speeds everything up.
I think AI can help us chill out. It could check facts at the speed of virality. It could tell me what Haidt, Pinker, Popper, Chomsky, or Rauch would say about a thought of mine. Then I could admit sooner when I go astray. That depends on AI being aligned with us, and earning our trust.