Answer two of the following questions (drawing from “Gaslighting Citizens” and “Homeownership and Portfolio Choice Over Generations”), and respond to at least one other student’s post afterward for a total
1. How do Beerbohm and Davis apply the personal concept of “gaslighting” to the behaviors and actions of political elites? What are some contemporary examples of this practice the authors find in modern politics, and can you find even more recent examples? Finally, what connections do the authors make between political partisanship and susceptibility to political manipulation?
2. What are “shared audacious beliefs,” and what are some historic examples highlighted by Beerbohm and Davis? According to the authors, what is the “dilemma” between audacious beliefs and gaslighting, and how does this present a problem for active citizenship in a democracy?
3. According to Paz-Pardo, what are the key factors involved in the reduction of homeownership rates between cohorts born in 1940 and 1960, as well as 1960 and 1980? Briefly describe his “life cycle structural model”; how does this model account for the long-term reduction in homeownership across generations?
Gaslighting Citizens
Eric Beerbohm
Ryan W. Davis
Harvard University
Brigham Young University
Abstract: Gaslighting brings its victims to doubt the sources of their evidence. This article holds that political gaslighting, by
leading citizens to hold beliefs disconnected from the available evidence, poses a distinctive threat to democratic politics. But
holding audacious beliefsbeliefs that are ahead of the evidencecan serve as a core ingredient for democratic movements. This creates a dilemma for citizens, who must choose between two kinds of evidential policies. How can they protect
themselves from gaslighting without rendering themselves insusceptible to the mobilizing efforts central to democratic politics? Citizens, then, face a standing challenge: to remain open to the bully pulpit while vigilant against the gaslighters
epistemic bullying.
