The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and Defy Effectively

by Todd B. Kashdan

Overview

A highly practical and researched-based toolbox for anyone who wants to create a world with more justice, creativity, and courage.

For too long, the term insubordination has evoked negative feelings and mental images. But for ideas to evolve and societies to progress, it’s vital to cultivate rebels who are committed to challenging conventional wisdom and improving on it. Change never comes easily. And most would-be rebels lack the skills to overcome hostile audiences who cling desperately to the way things are.

Based on cutting-edge research, The Art of Insubordination is the essential guide for anyone seeking to be heard, make change, and rebel against an unhealthy status quo. Learn how to

Resist the allure of complacency

Discover the value of being around people who stop conforming and start deviating.

Produce messages that influence the majority— when in the minority.

Build mighty alliances

Manage the discomfort when trying to rebel

Champion ideas that run counter to traditional thinking

Unlock the benefits of being in a group of diverse people holding divergent views

Cultivate curiosity, courage, and independent, critical thinking in youth

Filled with engaging stories about dissenters in the trenches as well as science that will transform your thinking. The Art of Insubordination is for anyone who seeks more justice, courage, and creativity in the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593420881
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/15/2022
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	628,445
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Todd B. Kashdan, Ph.D., is professor of psychology at George Mason University, and a leading authority on well-being, curiosity, courage, and resilience. He has published more than 220 scientific articles, his work has been cited more than 40,000 times, and he received the American Psychological Association’s Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology. His books Curious? and The Upside of Your Dark Side have been translated into more than fifteen languages. His writing has appeared in the Harvard Business Review, National Geographic, and other publications, and his research is featured regularly in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Time. He’s a twin with twin daughters (plus one more), with plans to rapidly populate the world with great conversationalists.

Read an Excerpt

Despite what you learned in high school, Charles Darwin didn't invent the theory of evolution.

Okay, maybe he did, but he didn't do it alone.

In the preface to On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, the awkwardly titled book that would change the world, Darwin listed thirty men who previously mustered the courage to question intellectual and religious orthodoxies about nature.

These characters paid a steep price for their boldness. Have you heard of Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri (nicknamed Al-Jahiz)? Good luck finding a refrigerator magnet of him. Muslim scholars refer to Al-Jahiz as "the father of the theory of evolution," and for good reason: he arrived at the notion of "survival of the fittest" a thousand years before Darwin, in the year 860. Al-Jahiz wondered why certain animals imported from Africa and Asia to what is now Iraq easily adapted to their new environment whereas others caught illnesses and perished. His reward for this biological discovery was arrest and banishment from his native land. And he was lucky. The chief Muslim ruler of Baghdad got downright medieval on the wealthy patron funding Al-Jahiz's research. Military officials imprisoned Al-Jahiz's patron and executed him inside an iron maiden (a spike-laden metal coffin that impaled victims when the doors closed).

You'd think scientists would take a hint and keep their strange and dangerous theories to themselves. About seven hundred years later, in the 1500s, a French scientist named Bernard Palissy dared question the Catholic Church's proclamation that the Earth was only a few thousand years old. Noting that tides and winds required long periods of time to visibly alter the landscape, Palissy argued that our planet was much older than a few thousand years (how much older he refused to say). Palissy also proposed that an elephant thousands of years ago would not be the same as an elephant today. This concept of species transformation across generations was heresy. His reward: several arrests, a spate of flogging, and destruction of his books. Oh, and they burned him at the stake.

Others on Darwin's list received better treatment-the authorities spared them death or ostracism-but nobody would characterize their lives as rainbows and gumdrops. They were denounced as infidels. Monitored by the police. Disowned by their families. Censored. Physically assaulted. Threatened with death. All for doubting Biblical claims that animals and humans were really created in six days, that God was really the only force responsible for their evolution, and that humans were really the zenith of God's achievements (a rung lower than angels). Questioning orthodox beliefs made you an outsider, a threat, a heretic deserving of torture and death.

I use Darwin's predecessors as an example here to highlight the price that many, if not most, dissenters, deviants, revolutionaries, rebels, and outliers pay for the sake of progress. Sometimes progress happens by happy accident, but more often a courageous person defies social norms. Somebody noticed that the existing orthodoxy in some small or large way was unhealthy, stagnant, or even dangerous, and championed a countervailing idea. And some member of the majority decided to give new ideas a fair reception instead of the middle finger. More often than not, dissent yields progress. Outlaw dissent, and you slow the speed of cultural evolution.

Darwin's predecessors matter because they inspire a question: why did he succeed while they failed? Yes, Darwin received hate mail and anonymous nineteenth-century trolls called him a heathen, but his ideas found a big audience. The greatest European scientists of the nineteenth century elected him a Fellow of The Royal Society, the oldest scientific academy in existence; and awarded him the prestigious Royal Medal for his research explaining the formation of coral reefs. Popular readers loved his book of travel adventures, snazzily entitled Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836. In a world without the Travel Channel and National Geographic, Darwin's book sparked imagination and enlivened many a dinner table conversation. If highway billboard signs existed, which they didn't, his face would have adorned them selling sneakers and chocolate milk. So why was his insubordination so much more effective than those of other, like-minded thinkers around the world and across the centuries?

A full answer to this question would fill many books, requiring an extensive historical analysis of both Darwin and his predecessors. But we can raise some interesting possibilities by turning to social psychology. In recent decades, researchers studying a number of topics-emotion, self-regulation, creativity, persuasion, minority influence, intergroup conflict, political psychology, group dynamics-revealed how we might differ and disagree successfully. Science has also helped us understand how members of the majority can become receptive to dissenters, increasing the odds that the valuable but subversive ideas of insubordinates will take root.

Darwin lacked the benefit of this knowledge, but he intuitively followed a number of successful insubordination strategies. We know, for instance, that dissenters boost the odds of convincing others if they take a careful measure of society's prejudices and calibrate their speech and actions accordingly. Darwin understood how provocative it was to suggest life stemmed from something other than the divine spark of God. His own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, saw the Vatican ban his books for articulating a theory of evolution. In order to preserve his mental health, the younger Darwin sketched out his theory of evolution and then waited not two, not five, not ten, but fifteen years before publishing it. Only at that point, after another controversial work, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, became an international sensation, did he believe society was finally ready-or as ready as it would ever be-to digest ideas as controversial as his. "In my opinion," he wrote, Vestiges "has done excellent service, in removing prejudice . . . preparing the ground for the reception of analogous views."

Psychologists emphasize how important it is for principled rebels to communicate in ways that help overcome listeners' emotional resistance. Darwin contemplated how to strengthen his argument. He wrote in an accessible, jargon-free style comprehensible to everyday readers, not just scientists. He relied on analogies as illustrations. Victorian readers delighted in Darwin's vivid descriptions of "hairless dogs" and "pigeons with feathered feet." They learned about the mingling of ant slaves with masters, what happened when young chickens lost their fear of dogs and cats (it wasn't pretty), and the engineering feats of bees. Besides entertaining his readers, Darwin engaged them as participants by using phrases such as "we can see," "we can understand," and "we ought to find." He asked for reader commitment by posing questions such as, "What now are we to say to these several facts?" An interactive video game it was not, but by the standards of the time, it was compelling.

Researchers studying successful dissent have found that allies play a critical role in the promotion of unconventional ideas. Here Darwin truly shined. A year before he published Origin of Species, he received a manuscript from Alfred Russel Wallace outlining a competing theory of evolution. Having delayed publication of his book, Darwin feared that Wallace alone would receive credit for discovering evolution. To stake his own claim, Darwin allowed friends to take charge and set up a presentation at an upcoming public meeting. The meeting featured Wallace's manuscript and a time-stamped letter showing that Darwin arrived at his conclusions first. Neither Darwin nor Wallace were present, but Darwin's four-man infantry of fellow scientists-Charles Lyell, Joseph Dalton Hooker, Asa Gray, and Thomas Henry Huxley (the latter known as "Darwin's bulldog")-fought valiantly on his behalf, lending their own credibility to his theory. Darwin was an unimpressive orator. His friends, though, were skilled enough to debate critics and win over experts and laypeople.

Darwin deployed specific strategies for successfully selling his theory to the mainstream and radically changing how people today think about the origins of human behavior. These strategies, coupled with later research, can help non-conformists in our midst become more resilient, persuasive, and effective at mobilizing others. I know because over the past decade I've conducted, collaborated on, and synthesized studies that explore how people with fresh ideas can become courageous. I've designed practical strategies for championing ideas others regard as outlandish, threatening, or just plain weird. I've taught these strategies to corporate executives, government intelligence officers, global financial leaders, and other prominent people around the world. These interventions work, and published studies provide the scientific evidence explaining why. With a bit of extra effort, we can all succeed more in our efforts to help members of the disbelieving majority overcome their internal resistance and give change a chance, whether our ideas are minor refinements of conventional wisdom or revolutionary departures, like Darwin's were.

Editorial Reviews

Winner of the Excessively Prestigious Book Award
 
Behavioral Scientist Best Summer Book Reads

Next Big Idea Club "Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2022"

“Todd Kashdan combines cutting-edge science and real-life stories about the kind of insubordination we need to make the world a better place. This is the book that all virtuous rebels need.”
—Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better

"Why is it so difficult to do the right thing, especially when the system pushes against us? In this engaging, well-researched book, you'll discover practical ways to speak up, show up and make a difference."
—Seth Godin, author of Poke the Box

“Although dissent is an art, Kashdan shows us something even more important and practical—it’s also a science. He does so with an array of captivating and instructive accounts that reveal the value of this skill.”
—Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence and Pre-Suasion

"Our world is broken, and this book can help us fix it. Todd Kashdan's work shows us the most effective ways to defy injustice and shake up the status quo — in both big and small ways. This is the book we've been waiting for." 
—Judson Brewer, New York Times bestselling author of Unwinding Anxiety

“With new research and original, inspiring stories, Kashdan has delivered a manifesto for individuals and organizations who want to spark innovation and creativity.”
—Susan David, PhD, author of the #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller Emotional Agility

"If the goal is to continually improve society and make your teams better, read this book. My hope is that The Art of Insubordination will be widely read to inspire a new generation of rebels with a cause."
—Greg Lukianoff, co-author of the New York Times bestseller The Coddling of the American Mind

"A useful primer for those determined to make waves for a good cause."
—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2021-11-30
Sit down and don’t make trouble—or else read this book.

According to Kashdan, a professor of psychology, it’s important to question authority and to take a stance of “principled insubordination, a brand of deviance intended to improve society with a minimal amount of secondary harm”—to subject received wisdom and things as they are to cross-examination. The principled part is significant. Being a rebel without a clue is useless, while being principled in rebelliousness “is vital for improving society.” In a text full of psychological theories and the results of telling experiments, Kashdan examines the many ways by which we lull ourselves into accepting the status quo. Perhaps surprisingly, he notes that “disadvantaged people often do just as much (or more) to affirm a system’s validity than those who occupied privileged positions within the same system.” Indeed, “people will go to bizarre lengths to rationalize and protect a social system that harms them.” Thus the recent rise of authoritarianism, which surely begs for people who’ll say no against all those people who’ll say yes. Learning how to say no, though, requires work. Kashdan identifies pitfalls such as status quo bias, confirmation bias (seeking evidence for what you believe and ignoring what doesn’t support your view), and the hope that submission will somehow lead to a higher social or economic class. There’s also projection bias, by which we “think others tend to share our preferences, beliefs, and behaviors more than they actually do.” This often produces martyrs instead of rebels. The author counsels taking all this information with as little stress and as much self-care as possible while being brave in the face of conformity and incuriosity. Ultimately, he writes, we must commit to “raising a new generation of youth who feel emboldened to disagree, defy, and deviate from problematic norms and standards.”

A useful primer for those determined to make waves for a good cause.

Kirkus Reviews