

Claire Lehmann on The Psychology Behind Wokeness
15 snips May 1, 2025
Claire Lehmann, an Australian publisher and journalist, founded Quillette to promote free inquiry. In this discussion, she tackles the complexities of gender in social sciences and the pushback academics face for unpopular opinions. The dynamics of intra-elite competition reveal how moral communities can impact personal beliefs. She explores the importance of understanding psychological sex differences while challenging societal narratives. Lehmann also highlights the interplay of genetics in shaping career preferences and the nuanced influence of childhood experiences.
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Rise of Cancellation Culture
- Claire Lehmann founded Quillette to support heterodox academic views often suppressed for political reasons.
- Cancellation for raising awkward questions became widespread especially around 2018-2020.
Psychology Behind Wokeness
- Wokeness may be driven by intra-elite status competition and moral purity signaling.
- People conflate moral outlooks with objective truth, treating challenging facts as taboo.
Personality Traits in Extremism
- Political extremes on left and right correlate with dark triad traits like narcissism and sadism.
- Some woke politics may be motivated by a desire to punish dissent and gain cultural currency.