The Curse That Keeps Us From Having Nice Things

A new phrase based on psychology.

“That’ll never work.”

Apparently, most people we know support commonsense things like clean air, public health, climate action, a living wage, a fair tax system, some form of gun control, women’s rights, human rights, and equality.

So why don’t we have them?

Something weird happens when you start talking about actually changing things. Suddenly, it’s too much work.

They shut down.

Almost every serious debate or conversation you’ve ever had with a minimizer or denier has probably led to the same point. They ask, “So you described all the problems. What’s your solution?”

You tell them the solutions, and then you hear it:

“That’ll never work.”

For the last century, social psychology has explored all kinds of cognitive biases—going back to Leon Festinger’s idea of cognitive dissonance and beyond. But I haven’t found a term to describe this particular glitch, when someone fulfills their own prophecy in advance, refusing to advocate for something they want because they believe it’s impossible to achieve. We have plenty of terms that come close, but nothing that really hits the nail on the head.

So I made one.