Cognitive Psychology and Sustainable Growth

David Brooks has an op-ed called “The Cognitive Age” in the New York Times that I think is a must-read. He talks about current perceptions of globalization–how it has become a popular paradigm for explaining change–especially change we don’t like. Brooks argues that it is the wrong paradigm, because it doesn’t explain what is really happening in the world. Brooks argues that a useful paradigm focuses on cognitive skills.

Brooks’ argument is right in line with what Peter Drucker told us years ago when he wrote about “Knowledge Workers.” The changes brought about by new technologies are not about nations and cheap labor; they are about the increasing demands for skilled human capital. Sustainable jobs come from doing useful things that people need. This is interesting to me because I spend a lot of time thinking about how the mass media, by accident or design, contribute to intergroup conflict on a national and international scale and how globalization has become a catch-phrase for conflict.

Globalization is a real whipping boy, particularly in election years. It is portrayed as a negative by-product of technological innovation and capitalist greed. It is a dandy vote-getting strategy for politicians promising to restore jobs and correct other economic woes without addressing change. Many old jobs just aren’t going to exist much longer and old skills are not valued as much. It’s easier to promise to restoration of “the good old days” than to figure out how to help people adapt and train people for new opportunities. None of us likes to change. But we are doing everyone a disservice by treating them like children, pretending that change doesn’t happen, and delaying the inevitable. The human brain has extraordinary potential to learn and adapt and we’re selling it short.

More destructive, however, the political approach that denies the fundamental changes in sustainable job opportunities is also creating a divisive climate of tribalism. Through fear, politicians and the media are getting our attention and telling us whom to hate for our troubles. Depending upon the target voters, politicians promise to exact a pound of flesh from “the big corporations,” “terrorists,” “the oil companies,” “rich people,” “the Chinese,” “the Indians,” “Islamo-fascists,” “illegal immigrants” or any other group that can be blamed.

Don’t bother us with the facts. Did you know that technology has increased productivity and that increasing productivity raises standards of living? That fewer jobs are required to produce the same amount of goods and services than just a few years ago? That China has lost 10 times more manufacturing jobs than the U.S.? And that manufacturing is higher in the U.S. now than in the 1980s?

Scaring people increases their sense vulnerability and uncertainty. People who are afraid are MORE resistant to change, have less confidence and exert less effort.

By focusing on the wrong things–job counts and wage rates–we are overlooking real solutions. Solutions will be found in putting psychology to work. Success today requires applying cognitive psychology–more skills, better education, and cultural awareness and positive psychology–more resilience, confidence, and sense of control.

As Brooks points out:
“The globalization paradigm emphasizes the fact that information can now travel 15,000 miles in an instant. But the most important part of information’s journey is the last few inches — the space between a person’s eyes or ears and the various regions of the brain. Does the individual have the capacity to understand the information? Does he or she have the training to exploit it?”

People have to be better thinkers, better information processors, and better decision-makers. As long as we are busy blaming cheap labor in China, we won’t devote the resources to education and learning that are the keys to competition in a world that values information over wrenches. The media has an opportunity to promote education, retraining, and skills acquisition. Media technologies give us tools to development and leverage our vast educational and pedagogical resources; our understanding of psychology gives us the tools to teach not only skills but also to instill a belief in the ability to do it. It’s like a taxi driver in New York once said, “you have to want it.”