1. Global strategies
  2. Praising

Praising

Counter-claim

The social consequences of praise and blame: praising people excessively can lead them to act badly, while blame puts them on notice and reinforces good behaviour. And insofar as this effect is more likely to influence wealthy and powerful people – those who can, thanks to their resources and influence, do more – it magnifies the harm of their bad conduct.

If we want to foster a truly democratic society – a society in which we treat each other as equals – we must rein in such excessive praise and the perverse incentives that encourage it. We should aim for the opposite extreme, toward withholding praise and being more circumspect about the wealthy and powerful, to restore balance. As Justice Louis Brandeis, who witnessed our previous Gilded Age, might have said: ‘We may have democracy, or we may have praise showered on the heads of a few, but we can’t have both.’

Broader

Narrower

Problem

Boasting
Presentable

SDG

Sustainable Development Goal #4: Quality Education

Metadata

Database
Global strategies
Type
(B) Basic universal strategies
Subject
  • Research, standards » Awards
  • Content quality
    Unpresentable
     Unpresentable
    Language
    English
    1A4N
    A2046
    DOCID
    11120460
    D7NID
    217960
    Last update
    Oct 18, 2019