For every story of hate there's a story of hope: How we reduced anti-minority discrimination across southern Africa in just 24 weeks
Summary:
Stigma and discrimination against certain groups of people underlie tragedies from violence against women and girls to genocide. We found an effective way to significantly reduce discrimination at speed in fact, in just 24 weeks. By applying findings from academic neuropsychologists and behaviouralists, we moved past some traditional ways of fighting discrimination and found a more effective way. We discovered that discrimination arises when the biased divide the world into 'us' and 'them' with the targets of prejudice clearly a 'them.' We realised that condemning abuse of minorities (a common tactic) was counterproductive because it simply confirmed the line between 'us' and 'them' (and reinforced that abuse is the norm). To overcome a belief in 'us' and 'them,' we learned that simply telling people 'We're all the same inside' isn't enough. Instead, we had to help millions of the biased feel intuitive empathy for minorities. We created a radio drama series that had no overt message at all. The drama series created intuitive identification with minorities as 'one of us.' And we demonstrated that 'people like you' are embracing minorities, further eroding a perceived distinction between 'us' and 'them' and embedding acceptance as the new norm. Our work holds profound lessons for reducing stigma and discrimination.
Background/Objectives:
Virulent prejudice against minorities (gay men, lesbians, transgender people, and sex workers) in southern Africa meant that these minorities were too ashamed or afraid to seek life-saving medical care for HIV. The Global Fund, co-founded by Bill Gates, spends over $1 billion a year on HIV care in Africa. The Global Fund realised that it will never be able to eradicate HIV as long as prejudice persists. So the Global Fund brought us in to reduce prejudice at scale and at speed.
Description of the Big Idea/Experience/Innovation and Its Importance to the SBCC Field:
Our first approach at reducing discrimination failed but gave us a breakthrough. We tried a message used in some anti-discrimination campaigns: We're all the same inside. This message failed to change biased views. We turned to neuropsychology to understand why. The work of Stanford's Robert Sapolsky and others gave us a breakthrough insight. We can develop powerful perceptions of 'us' versus 'them.' When we see certain people as 'them,' we can dehumanise and reject them. The key to reducing discrimination is to get the biased to see minorities as 'one of us.' But how could we do that? Behavioural psychology gave us the key. Rational argument doesn't work. We had to make the biased intuitively feel that minorities are like them. We achieved this at scale with an exciting radio drama series that helped listeners care about and 'know' the characters. We recorded the show in multiple languages and hyper-localised details like names and places in each version. And we showed that 'people like you' are embracing minorities, further eroding a perceived distinction between 'us' and 'them' and embedding acceptance as the new norm.
Discussion/Implications for the Field:
Stigma and discrimination underlie tragedies from violence against women and girls to genocide. We reduced discrimination at speed in fact, in just 24 weeks. We found that two tactics used to fight discrimination may not work well (condemning abuse of minorities, and claiming 'We're all the same inside' without making people feel it). Our work has profound lessons for overcoming stigma. We found that creating intuitive empathy works wonders. In fact, no overt message is even necessary. We believe there are no limits on our ability to erode discrimination with this more subtle approach.
Abstract submitted by:
Sarah Brown - M&C Saatchi Group
Stigma and discrimination against certain groups of people underlie tragedies from violence against women and girls to genocide. We found an effective way to significantly reduce discrimination at speed in fact, in just 24 weeks. By applying findings from academic neuropsychologists and behaviouralists, we moved past some traditional ways of fighting discrimination and found a more effective way. We discovered that discrimination arises when the biased divide the world into 'us' and 'them' with the targets of prejudice clearly a 'them.' We realised that condemning abuse of minorities (a common tactic) was counterproductive because it simply confirmed the line between 'us' and 'them' (and reinforced that abuse is the norm). To overcome a belief in 'us' and 'them,' we learned that simply telling people 'We're all the same inside' isn't enough. Instead, we had to help millions of the biased feel intuitive empathy for minorities. We created a radio drama series that had no overt message at all. The drama series created intuitive identification with minorities as 'one of us.' And we demonstrated that 'people like you' are embracing minorities, further eroding a perceived distinction between 'us' and 'them' and embedding acceptance as the new norm. Our work holds profound lessons for reducing stigma and discrimination.
Background/Objectives:
Virulent prejudice against minorities (gay men, lesbians, transgender people, and sex workers) in southern Africa meant that these minorities were too ashamed or afraid to seek life-saving medical care for HIV. The Global Fund, co-founded by Bill Gates, spends over $1 billion a year on HIV care in Africa. The Global Fund realised that it will never be able to eradicate HIV as long as prejudice persists. So the Global Fund brought us in to reduce prejudice at scale and at speed.
Description of the Big Idea/Experience/Innovation and Its Importance to the SBCC Field:
Our first approach at reducing discrimination failed but gave us a breakthrough. We tried a message used in some anti-discrimination campaigns: We're all the same inside. This message failed to change biased views. We turned to neuropsychology to understand why. The work of Stanford's Robert Sapolsky and others gave us a breakthrough insight. We can develop powerful perceptions of 'us' versus 'them.' When we see certain people as 'them,' we can dehumanise and reject them. The key to reducing discrimination is to get the biased to see minorities as 'one of us.' But how could we do that? Behavioural psychology gave us the key. Rational argument doesn't work. We had to make the biased intuitively feel that minorities are like them. We achieved this at scale with an exciting radio drama series that helped listeners care about and 'know' the characters. We recorded the show in multiple languages and hyper-localised details like names and places in each version. And we showed that 'people like you' are embracing minorities, further eroding a perceived distinction between 'us' and 'them' and embedding acceptance as the new norm.
Discussion/Implications for the Field:
Stigma and discrimination underlie tragedies from violence against women and girls to genocide. We reduced discrimination at speed in fact, in just 24 weeks. We found that two tactics used to fight discrimination may not work well (condemning abuse of minorities, and claiming 'We're all the same inside' without making people feel it). Our work has profound lessons for overcoming stigma. We found that creating intuitive empathy works wonders. In fact, no overt message is even necessary. We believe there are no limits on our ability to erode discrimination with this more subtle approach.
Abstract submitted by:
Sarah Brown - M&C Saatchi Group
Source
Approved abstract for the postponed 2020 SBCC Summit in Marrakech, Morocco. Provided by the International Steering Committee for the Summit. Image credit: KP-REACH