Ruthy Kohorn Rosenberg, Staff, MIT

Why this question is important to Ruthy:

I think about this question a great deal, especially at MIT because there’s great effort at MIT to solve large complex problems for ‘the world.’  It’s not clear to me that those same people who are working hard at solving problems ‘out there’ are also taking the time to think about the person that is right next to them, who they are, what they might be struggling with, and
making contact.  And I don’t mean you have to fix that person’s problems - just make contact.

I have been helping people engage in conflicts more effectively for many years and in various capacities. And I’ve noticed that many times people don’t take the time to just talk to the person next to them, connect with the person next to them – in their homes, on their streets, in the office, the lab, the classroom, the dorm…

How do we do this simple thing?

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Ruthy’s question is one of thousands of questions gathered during a dropping knowledge question campaign. The power of these questions is evident. These questions demonstrate just how thoughtful the public can be if asked to name what it believes is important.

What’s Does Ruthy’s  Question Mean to You?

- Aaron Thom, Student, MIT

Why this question is important to Aaron:

This question is important to me because on a personal level I know that whatever the problems of the world are, I want to have a hand in solving them.  But I am curious as to what will the focus of the world in the future.

Currently I am an environmental engineering student, and I am very conscious of the fact that while most of the world is focused on the energy crisis at the moment, we will soon face water issues in terms of quality and supply due to a changing climate, increasing population, and changing interaction between humans and their environment. So water is a growing issue. But that will be within the coming decade or two-what comes next?

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Aaron’s question is one of thousands of questions gathered during a dropping knowledge question campaign. The power of these questions is evident. These questions demonstrate just how thoughtful the public can be if asked to name what it believes is important.

What’s Does Aaron’s Question Mean to You?

- Emile Bruneau, Postdoctoral Associate, MIT

Why this question is important to Emile:

Growing up in a small, working-class town in America I saw my fair share of fights. Although there is an almost elegant simplicity to the equation, “we have an issue, we fight, the end”, the confrontation always clouded the actual disagreement and prevented any kind of resolution. A few times I intervened, less out of nobility than out of pure curiosity. I found that the simplest of questions (“why are you two about to fight?”) would break the spell. When they tried to answer the question, it seemed that a psychological magnifying glass was removed from the situation to reveal that the disagreement was mundane and the difference of views trivial. This illustrated to me the power of our own minds to create immense barriers when the actual divide between people was often but a crack.

Later in life I had the chance to travel rather extensively. I found myself in South Africa in 1994, right after the fall of Apartheid; in Sri Lanka during a Tamil Tiger attack on the international airport in 2001; in Ireland at a reconciliation camp for Protestant and Catholic children in 1999. Here were groups with real differences. The barriers in these cases were tangible and important; they had the weight of history behind them. But in all these places, too, psychology still seemed to play a strong role, creating a barrier much larger than the reality and helping to prevent the resolution of conflict.

In between the high school fights over imagined or trivial slights, and protracted inter-group conflicts between neighboring groups lie the vast expanse of interpersonal and intergroup disagreements that are part of the human condition: disagreements between spouses about how best to weather a financial storm, or how to raise a child; political disagreements about education, health care, immigration… these issues all matter, and progress in a diverse society (and a healthy partnership) requires communication.

Different opinions are inevitable. Real interpersonal and intergroup barriers will always exist. We are all susceptible, too, to the psychological effects that artificially enhance these barriers. So the question to me remains: how can we decrease or eliminate the psychological barriers that exist between people or between groups, so that we maximize the potential to surmount the real barriers and progress on the important issues?

This question took me from a career in teaching to my present position as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Rebecca Saxe at the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department. My research program is split between using fMRI imaging to better understand the cognitive underpinnings of the psychological biases that we harbor towards others (specifically in members of conflict groups), and trying to determine what effect conflict resolution efforts have on the participants; in other words, which interventions work, which don’t, and for whom?

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Emile’s question is one of thousands of questions gathered during a dropping knowledge question campaign. The power of these questions is evident. These questions demonstrate just how thoughtful the public can be if asked to name what it believes is important.

What’s Does Emile’s Question Mean to You?

Stephen Morton, Student, MIT

Why this question is important to Stephen:

This question is important to me because I see a lot of people being allowed to suffer or live with a low quality of life while others are in an excellent position to help them.  This could be anybody from the person who drops a notebook and has a few sheets of paper fly away as dozens of people walk by and glance but don’t help or the person who is struggling to be able to eat every day.  I am from a community where you could go next door and ask for a cup of sugar or help to fix things up around your house and you could get it, but the amount that people are willing to help others seems to change from place to place.  My background tells me that I should help people who need it, but after seeing other people watch others struggle and not help I was forced to ask the question; is it my responsibility to help and if so, to what extent am I responsible for other people’s well-being?

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Stephen’s question is one of thousands of questions gathered during a dropping knowledge question campaign. The power of these questions is evident. These questions demonstrate just how thoughtful the public can be if asked to name what it believes is important.

What’s Does Stephen’s Question Mean to You?

Kallie’s question is one of thousands of questions gathered during a dropping knowledge question campaign. The power of these questions is evident. These questions demonstrate just how thoughtful the public can be if asked to name what it believes is important.

What’s Does Kallie’s Question Mean to You?

Alice’s question is one of thousands of questions gathered during a dropping knowledge question campaign. The power of these questions is evident. These questions demonstrate just how thoughtful the public can be if asked to name what it believes is important.

What’s Does Alice’s Question Mean to You?

This is one of thousands of questions gathered during a dropping knowledge question campaign. The power of these questions is evident. These questions demonstrate just how thoughtful the public can be if asked to name what it believes is important.

What’s Does this Question Mean to You?

Mary’s question is one of thousands of questions gathered during a dropping knowledge question campaign. The power of these questions is evident. These questions demonstrate just how thoughtful the public can be if asked to name what it believes is important.

What’s Does Mary’s Question Mean to You?

Jean-Paul’s question is one of thousands of questions gathered during a dropping knowledge question campaign. The power of these questions is evident. These questions demonstrate just how thoughtful the public can be if asked to name what it believes is important.

What’s Does Jean-Paul’s Question Mean to You?

Jingyun’s question is one of thousands of questions gathered during a dropping knowledge question campaign. The power of these questions is evident. These questions demonstrate just how thoughtful the public can be if asked to name what it believes is important.

What’s Does Jingyun’s Question Mean to You?