From Outrage To Understanding: Restoring Substance in a Performative Culture
Living Under the Same Roof: Part III
In Part I and Part II, I explored how moral performance thrives in our hyper-connected world, and how cognitive distortions fuel “righteous” anger. To close the series, I want to shift from spectacle to substance: what we can actually do to restore understanding in the spaces we share.
The Cost of Outrage and Performance
We’re wired to explain others’ behavior by their character (“she’s careless,” “he’s malicious”) and our own behavior by circumstances (“I was rushed,” “the system failed”). That bias, _the fundamental attribution error, supercharges moral performance. It flattens people into villains and snips away context, making outrage feel justified and dialogue feel pointless.