identity formation

Panic! At the endocrinologist.

Thanks to Jules Gill-Peterson (jgillpeterson.com) and Julia Serano (patreon.com/juliaserano) for help researching this episode and Evan Urquhart and Parker Molloy for fact-checking!

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Links!

• Origins of "Social Contagion" and "Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria"
• What does the scholarly research say about the effect of gender transition on transgender well-being?
• Mental Health Outcomes in Transgender and Nonbinary Youths Receiving Gender-Affirming Care
• Fresh trans myths of 2017: “rapid onset gender dysphoria”
• Rapid Onset of Gender Dysphoria in Adolescents and Young Adults: a Descriptive Study
• The Detransitioners: They Were Transgender, Until They Weren't
• How the idea of a “transgender contagion” went viral—and caused untold harm
• Mental Health Outcomes in Transgender and Nonbinary Youths Receiving Gender-Affirming Care
• 'Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria' Is Biased Junk Science
• A careful step into a field of landmines
• Detransition, Desistance, and Disinformation: A Guide for Understanding Transgender Children Debates
•  Recognizing and responding to misleading trans health research

Thanks to Doctor Dreamchip for our lovely theme song!

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Trauma. Violence. Bullying. Addiction. The range of things that these words encompass has expanded over time, and while my guest today would say that changes in how language is used are natural and inevitable, he also argues that the way we use words matters and has consequences, and that we need to better grapple with what those consequences are.

His name is Dr. Nick Haslam and he's a professor of psychology at the University of Melbourne who has studied a phenomenon he calls "concept creep," which refers to the tendency of concepts having to do with harm — from trauma to depression — to broaden their meaning over time. Nick describes how concept creep happens in two ways — vertical and horizontal — and occurs both amongst clinicians and the general public. He explains what he thinks is behind concept creep, and how the way we talk about harm-related concepts changes how people experience themselves and life, bringing new kinds of identities and new kinds of people into existence. Nick argues that while there are upsides to concept creep, it also carries potential dangers that can negatively impact our lives.

Resources Related to the Podcast

• Nick's ResearchGate page
• "Harm Inflation: Making Sense of Concept Creep"
• "How Americans Became So Sensitive to Harm" — Atlantic article about Nick's work
• The Loss of Sadness by Allan Horwitz and Jerome Wakefield
• "Making Up People" by Ian Hacking

Connect With Nick Haslam

• Nick's Faculty Page

Look down at what you're wearing. You picked out that blue shirt, right? And those boots — you decided on those because they're warm, didn't you? Well, maybe not. Researcher Jonah Berger says, we tend to be pretty good at recognizing how influences like product placement and peer pressure affect other people's choices... but we're not so good at recognizing those forces in our own decision-making.

The teenage brain is a wonderful thing, full of intense rewiring and rapid shifts in priority. In this episode, Robert and Julie reminisce about the teenagers they were and just what was going on in their brains to fuel all that odd, erratic behavior.

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