Keep Your Identity Small

Abstract

It is argued that the reason why certain topics, such as religion and politics, tend to degenerate into unproductive arguments is because they become intertwined with people’s identities. The author suggests that individuals can have more fruitful discussions on topics that do not engage their identities. It is argued that people’s identities become more entrenched the more labels they use to define themselves, making it harder to engage in productive discourse. Therefore, it is recommended to keep one’s identity small, minimizing the number of labels that define oneself, in order to have better ideas and more fruitful discussions. – AI-generated abstract