Experts debate the regulation of hateful speech on campus
Does hateful speech on campus constitute an act of violence? Yes, said psychology Professor Lisa Feldman Barrett, arguing that it inflicts measurable neurological damage. Ethical leadership Professor Jonathan Haidt disagreed, viewing it more as a necessary evil that arms students for the outside world. The two squared off Friday during the inaugural Rappaport Forum at Harvard Law School in a session titled “When Is Speech Violence? And Other Questions About Campus Speech.” Barrett, who teaches at Northeastern University, is author of “How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain.” Haidt, a New York University social psychologist, co-authored “The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure.” Moderator and HLS Professor Jeannie Suk Gersen began by asking what it means to think of speech as violence. The talk proved so vigorous that it was nearly an hour later that Haidt asked...