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ZOE JOHNSON KING: Hi, everyone.

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As mentioned, I am Zoe Johnson
King and I work on praise.

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By praise, I mean two things.

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First, there's the speech
and behavior in which

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we engage to express our positive
attitudes toward other people's

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behavior.

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So that's things like applause, high
fives, finger snapping, compliments,

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smiles and nods, and the
giving of awards and prizes.

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Second, there are those underlying
positive attitudes themselves.

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So things like admiration, approval,
esteem, gratitude and pride.

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These positive attitudes are ways of
commending somebody or giving them

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credit, or as I would say, praising
them, for something that they've done.

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Now there is an enormous literature on
motivation, agency, and responsibility,

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not just in philosophy, which is my
field, but also in related fields

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like psychology and law.

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However, most of that literature focuses
on blame and blameworthiness rather

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than praise and praiseworthiness.

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So one might ask, why?

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Why is that?

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And that question isn't asked very
often, but those who do discuss it

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usually give something like
the following argument.

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They say, look, being blamed and
punished is an unpleasant experience.

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No one likes to be blamed.

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So we should worry about whether
people are being blamed unfairly

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because that would be them being
subjected to an unpleasant experience

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that they don't really deserve.

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By contrast, being praised
and rewarded are different.

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Everyone likes to be
praised and rewarded.

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And so we shouldn't worry about
people being praised unfairly.

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Even if some people are
being praised unfairly,

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that's no big deal because
it's nice to be praised.

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I disagree.

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For illustration, consider the backlash
against praise of essential workers

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during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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In the early months of the
pandemic, lots of parts of the world

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introduced rituals of
clapping, or cheering,

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or even singing for essential
workers at regular intervals.

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And it became trendy to issue
public pronouncements of praise

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for essential workers, with
celebrities, influencers, politicians,

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public figures, corporations
and news agencies

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all clamoring to express
gratitude to essential workers

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and to call them heroes.

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But those expressions of praise
met with a mixed reception.

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Some essential workers said
that they appreciated the praise

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and it helped them to stay motivated.

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While others created satirical means.

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Like this one on the left, showing
a boy holding a piece of paper that

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says, "You are a hero" and
exclaiming, whoa, this is worthless.

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Or that one on the right showing
the media cheering on the essential,

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while they really mean
"sacrificial", as the caption says.

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We also saw some more poignant remarks
and some expressions of genuine anger.

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For example, one Reddit user wrote, "I'm
sick to death of the hero narrative.

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Almost like they're trying to use it.

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So they don't feel like
they have to pay people

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what they're owed for working such
dangerous conditions. haha, jk,

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unless."

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Upon which another
Reddit user commented,

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"It's like what they do to soldiers,
call them heroes and send them

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to the slaughterhouse."

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OK, so why was there all this backlash?

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What exactly was the problem?

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Well, I think that praise
of essential workers

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in those early months
of the COVID pandemic

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was problematic in at least three ways.

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First, a lot of it was insincere.

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Cursory acknowledgment of their toil
and our indebtedness became a trend

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and then a ritual performed largely
for the sake of keeping up appearances.

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But insincerely expressing attitudes
that one doesn't really hold

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is problematic in general.

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That's what's wrong with lying.

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And hollow expressions of
attitudes that one doesn't really

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hold that are motivated by an
interest in keeping up appearances

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so as to retain one's loyal
fan base or one's customers

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are no more than a calculated charade.

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In addition, some praise for essential
workers, whether sincere or insincere,

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functioned as a distraction.

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There are lots of challenging,
ethical and political questions

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that those of us who are
sheltering safely at home

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could have asked about what we could
have done to support essential workers

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and what we might owe them in light
of their work's clear, social value

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and its worsening conditions.

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And how it came to be that this
particular subsection of the population

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were the ones taking on significant
personal risk for the sake

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of significant public benefit and
whether it was just or unjust that,

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that was so.

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Praise can function as a distraction
because when you focus on how great

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it is, the essential workers
have what it takes to keep going,

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you focus on the aspect
of the situation that

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are comforting and
pleasant to think about

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and turn away from these
aspects of the situation that

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are challenging and
uncomfortable to think about.

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It's like what happens when
somebody compliments you

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on how well you deal with
adversity rather than asking you

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about how the adversity arose
or how they might alleviate it.

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Lastly, some praise for essential
workers was manipulative.

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In the literature on
manipulation in philosophy,

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we say that manipulation
is what occurs when someone

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convinces someone else
to do something using

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a method that's sneakier
than rational persuasion,

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but subtler than blunt coercion.

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So methods like selectively
presenting information or deliberately

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arousing strong emotions in
ones manipulatee, especially

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emotions to which manipulator
knows manipulatee to be especially

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susceptible in light of her
character, or history, or values.

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One paradigmatic example
of manipulation is what's

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colloquially known as the "guilt trip".

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Wherein acute guilt is the
emotion that manipulators

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incite and manipulatees in order
to get them to do what they want.

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And some praise of essential
workers functioned as a guilt trip.

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For example, Dr. Laura
Kolbe wrote an opinion piece

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in The Journal of
General Internal Medicine

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in which she said the following.

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"Ongoing extreme risk without
appropriate compensation or risk

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reduction shouldn't be
expected of health care workers

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under the label of gifts or heroism.

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It's flattering, but
as the months go on,

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it's also harder to call attention to
the need for workplace improvements

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if one's internalized this view of
one's higher risk or unprecedented work

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as a gift to society."

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In other words, some
praise of essential workers

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were strategically
deployed in order to get

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them to feel as though it would
be selfish or disloyal to complain

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about the ever increasing
risks involved in their work

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or to call attention to
those challenging, ethical,

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and political questions about why
they should have to bear those risks

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and what the rest of us can do about it.

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As well as distracting us from
those challenging questions,

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then praise can discourage us
from even asking the questions.

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Since it can create the impression
that the people being praised

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are doing what they're doing out
of the goodness of their hearts,

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and therefore, that the rest of us don't
need to do anything besides thank them.

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OK, so what's the upshot?

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What lessons can we draw from all this?

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Well, we can start by noticing that the
1-2 punch of praise that simultaneously

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distracts and manipulates
is by no means confined

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to the case of essential
workers during pandemic.

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On the contrary, as that Reddit
commenter shrewdly observed,

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a similar rhetoric has long
surrounded members of the armed forces

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and especially low-level infantry.

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It's also quite common for people whose
work serves an obvious public benefit,

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like state school teachers, public
defenders, social workers and so forth,

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to be paid relatively
poorly in comparison

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with comparable work in the private
sector, apparently with the expectation

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that their work social value will
motivate them regardless of salary.

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And similarly, feminist
scholars have for a long time

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criticized the ways in
which housework and child

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care can be expected of women
without any kind of compensation

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in the context of a rhetoric that paints
them as driven to perform that work out

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of love, and so, needing no further
support, no further benefit.

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And that's all I have time for today.

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Thanks for listening.

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[APPLAUSE]

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