CLOSING REMARKS

KIT CLOSING REMARKS

Today, on this day of Commencement for the Class of 2020, I’d like to conclude our remote graduation program by sharing a few thoughts on the powers of contagion We hear about contagion all the time now, particularly in terms of infection and disease — we’ve implemented painful measures of home confinement and physical distancing in the effort of self-preservation Our evolutionary history has provided humans with potent aversion reactions to deal with threats to survival, but the longer the threat remains, the more difficult those reactions become to sustain We are in a particularly intractable situation at the moment, as our personal protective measures deprive us of the social and emotional connections equally necessary for wellbeing and survival This is the ugliness of negative contagion

Several years ago, I was attending the American Psychological Association’s annual convention when I came across a poster presentation The researchers were seeking to understand if there was an effect for something akin to positive contagion So, they designed an experiment to understand how adults and children would feel about wearing Mr Rogers’ sweater This condition was compared to asking the same subjects how they would feel wearing an identical sweater that Mr Rogers had never worn Perhaps unsurprisingly, they found that a significant number of their subjects believed that wearing Mr Rogers’ sweater would transfer a positive essence and make them a friendlier and more compassionate person, whereas the identical, but never-worn-by-Mr -Rogers sweater had no such effect whatsoever

Positive contagion does indeed appear to exist in the human psyche Unfortunately, however, negative contagion is always much more robust and compelling Your aversion response from putting on a sweater that was worn by, say, a prominent public figure for whom you have great contempt and disgust, would be significantly stronger and much, much harder to overcome than any positive effect you might experience from wearing Mr Rogers’ sweater As the proverb goes, a teaspoon of tar will ruin a whole barrel of honey, but a teaspoon of honey does nothing for a barrel of tar

Okay, so there are two reasons I share this with you today The first reason is because our world is sick, and humanity has been infected with much more than a small viral pathogen — noxious beliefs and behaviors are contaminating our environment and society daily This is the influence of negative contagion, and it means that we need to work 10, 20, 100 times harder to be an effective counterweight and flatten the curve, as it were Every positive affirmation we share with those around us, every gesture of kindness and empathy, every action we take toward diversity, equity and inclusion, every insight and discovery that adds to the betterment of our world must be multiplied and amplified to have any chance of bringing us some balance It pains to me say this, but as you move on from Roeper, you are going to have to work harder — a lot harder — to have a positive impact at this time in human history

The second reason I wanted to tell you about that poster presentation is because of Mr Rogers He is quite famously known as saying, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me: ‘Look for the helpers You will always find people who are helping ’” I don’t want you to look for the helpers I want you to be the helpers Your parents and grandparents and extended families and teachers and coaches and mentors are all helpers too — we’ve gotten you this far, and we’ll keep you going, but Class of 2020, it is now your turn It’s your turn to be the helpers F I don’t want you to look for the helpers I want you to be the helpers Your parents and grandparents and extended families and teachers and coaches and mentors are all helpers too — we’ve gotten you this far, and we’ll keep you going, but Class of 2020, it is now your turn It’s your turn to be the helpers