Shame on You(Tube)
We are watched. Caught on ubiquitous cell phone cameras. Tweeted in real time. Judged by a capricious social media jury. Andy Warhol predicted that everyone would have 15 minutes of fame. Kelley Jo Burke ponders how we live in a world where everyone might have 15 minutes of shame.
We are watched. Caught on ubiquitous cell phone cameras. Tweeted in real time. Judged by a capricious social media jury. Andy Warhol predicted that everyone would have 15 minutes of fame. Kelley Jo Burke ponders how we live in a world where everyone might have 15 minutes of shame. **This episode originally aired May 25, 2015.
"If you look at world cultures, and there are thousands of them, they all have a word for shame. Shame is ever present, shame is everywhere ... We are a shameful species, and we fear shame. We don't want to be revealed to be miscreants."
-- Christopher Boehm
Participants in the program:
- Christopher Boehm, Ph.D., is a professor of anthropology and biological sciences at the University of Southern California. Dr. Boehm is author of a number of books and articles including Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior (Harvard University Press, 2001), and Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame (Basic Books, 2012).
- Gregory Brown is a Carleton University PhD candidate and researcher, and a retired police detective-sergeant. His thesis is called The Thin Blue Line on Thin Ice: Police Use of Force in the Era of Cameraphones, Citizen Journalism, and YouTube.
- Hamilton's 'Honest Cops' video helps renew faith in police - article in the Globe & Mail re: Greg Brown's research (Jan. 19, 2014)
- Joseph Burgo, Ph.D., has practiced psychotherapy for more than 30 years, holding licenses as a marriage and family therapist and clinical psychologist. He is the author of Why Do I Do That? Psychological Defense Mechanisms and the Hidden Ways They Shape Our Lives and The Narcissist You Know: Defending Yourself Against Extreme Narcissists in an All-About-Me World (Touchstone, September 2015). A regular writer and commentator for news outlets including The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and NPR, he is also the voice behind the Psychology Today blog Shame and his personal blog, After Psychotherapy
- Erica Perry is an insurance agent in Edmonton. Erica Perry's Change.Org petition
- Jennifer Jacquet is an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at NYU. She is an environmental social scientist interested in large-scale cooperation dilemmas, especially overfishing and climate change. She is the author of Is Shame Necessary? (Pantheon, 2015) -- about the evolution, function, and future of the use of social disapproval. She formerly wrote the Guilty Planet blog at Scientific American, and contributes to Edge.org.
- Jon Ronson is an award winning writer and documentary maker. He is the author of many bestselling books including So You've Been Publicly Shamed, Frank, Lost at Sea, The Psychopath Test, The Men Who Stare at Goats, and Them.
- Read the first chapter from So You've Been Publicly Shamed
Watch Monica Lewinky's Ted Talk: The Price of Shame