Educators: Beware the Certainty Trap

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | December 11, 2024 | Ilana Redstone

[karpov]

Despite what headlines often suggest, when it comes to tackling controversial issues on college campuses, the biggest challenge isn’t constraints on academic freedom. It’s not restrictions placed on free speech, high levels of self-censorship, or even a lack of civil discourse.

To be clear, each of these is a genuine problem, but they share a root cause that we tend to ignore. Failing to understand this point will continue to stand in the way of any path to rebuilding trust in higher education.

The shared root cause I’m referring to is something I call the Certainty Trap. And the easiest way to recognize it is by how we feel when we’re in it. We know we’re in this trap when we demonize, dismiss, or otherwise view with contempt people who disagree—especially on heated issues.

The trap is the result of a narrow, sloppy way of thinking that’s gone unchecked in higher education for years. It’s ultimately a failure to question, challenge, or clarify our thinking in a way that has blurred the line between interpretations and truth. And it forms the throughline between each of the problems described above.

Avoiding the trap means understanding that, when we judge as hateful or ignorant someone who sees the world differently, it’s because certainty has paved the way for us to do so.

To see how this can work, consider the claim that biology and gender are entirely distinct. Certainty on this point clears the path for the conclusion that saying “a trans-woman isn’t a woman” is transphobic. Similarly, certainty that inequality is caused by systemic racism, past and present, paves the way for the conclusion that questioning the role of systemic racism is itself racist.

[bankwalker]

1. Understand the difference between facts, opinions, and beliefs ... 3 different things.

2. Question authority.