Hopefully you have already seen Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of this series….and here is Part 4 which highlights the reality of shame and shaming which is featuring in how Yale University is exploring the ‘best messaging’ to encourage people to get the COVID-19 vaccine** (please see note below as I am not endorsing any particular vaccine but wanting to highlight the messaging methods being used).
Essentially they are contextualising how the message is worded and targeted. The message they want to promote is the same—'get the vaccine'—but how it is said, and the motivation it wants to ignite, differs from what they have done before. They realise that culture is changing and to make a message ‘stick’ and be ‘heard’ they have to change how to say it.
Yet, how it differs is worth a look, as it reveals a couple of things:
1. how they believe Americans in particular, but maybe Westerners in general, in the 21st Century think.
2. what this can remind us about how 21st Century Westerners (particularly Americans) may need to be brought the message of the gospel.
But lets look at what the actual Yale research messages are.
They have come up with 10 ways to frame the message, each with a slightly different angle of approach. They are:
1 - Personal Freedoma message about how COVID-19 is limiting people's personal freedom and by working together to get enough people vaccinated society can preserve its personal freedom.2- Economic Freedoma message about how COVID-19 is limiting peoples's economic freedom and by working together to get enough people vaccinated society can preserve its economic freedom.3- Social Benefit - self-interesta message that COVID-19 presents a real danger to one's health, even if one is young and healthy. Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is the best way to prevent oneself from getting sick.4- Social Benefit - community interesta message about the dangers of COVID-19 to the health of loved ones. The more people who get vaccinated against COVID-19, the lower the risk that one's loved ones will get sick. Society must work together and all get vaccinated5 - Economic Benefita message about how COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on the economy and the only way to strengthen the economy is to work together to get enough people vaccinated6 - Social Pressure - guiltThe message is about the danger that COVID-19 presents to the health of one's family and community. The best way to protect them is by getting vaccinated and society must work together to get enough people vaccinated. Then it asks the participant to imagine the guilt they will feel if they don't get vaccinated and spread the disease.7 - Social Pressure - embarrassmentThe message is about the danger that COVID-19 presents to the health of one's family and community. The best way to protect them is by getting vaccinated and by working together to make sure that enough people get vaccinated. Then it asks the participant to imagine the embarrassment they will feel if they don't get vaccinated and spread the disease.8 - Social Pressure - angerThe message is about the danger that COVID-19 presents to the health of one's family and community. The best way to protect them is by getting vaccinated and by working together to make sure that enough people get vaccinated. Then it asks the participant to imagine the anger they will feel if they don't get vaccinated and spread the disease.9 - Trust in Sciencea message about how getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is the most effective way of protecting one's community. Vaccination is backed by science. If one doesn't get vaccinated that means that one doesn't understand how infections are spread or who ignores science.10 - Not braverythis message describes how firefighters, doctors, and front line medical workers are brave. Those who choose not to get vaccinated against COVID-19 are not brave.
But let’s take a closer look at what the nuance is for each message in relation to the dynamic of shame.
The first five are oriented toward proposed material/physical benefits - physical health, physical freedom, economics.
The next five are oriented toward emotional/social status, and its these which I want to unpack further.
Yale label them as:
- Guilt
- Embarrassment
- Anger
- Trust in Science
- Not bravery
Guilt - this one is really saying that you will feel like you have done wrong by not protecting the health of one’s family and community, kind of like disobeying the law 101 to love your neighbour and are guilty of spreading the disease.
Embarrassment - this is another word for a level of shame, a feeling of not being able to face those around you because you would feel you failed to do your part for the good of society and would feel ashamed for presumably spreading the disease.
Anger - this is also specifically saying it is within the ‘social pressure’ area, and I think they are meaning the person who doesn’t take the vaccine will be angry at themselves for being the ones spreading the disease to family and friends. To be angry with yourself is to be disappointed and dissatisfied with yourself that you did not live up to your own expectations…in other words to be ashamed of yourself.
(*there is some confusion in the logic here, as if the vaccine is effective, and a person opts not to take the vaccine which is made available to all, they have by default admitted they are willing to get the disease come what may, at their own risk or peril. So if a person who chooses not to be vaccinated gets the disease, they will have only got it from others in the same situation, and will only spread it to others who have also chosen to not get the vaccination. If the vaccine is effective, they will not spread it to others who have been vaccinated. However we will go along with the Yale logic for now and simply take their options at face value).
Trust in Science - Here is not the place to go into the arguments for or against the science around vaccines but I don’t think it is fair to say that someone doesn’t believe in science just because they decline to be vaccinated. In fact I was thrilled to hear a scientist recently say on USA TV that science is not facts but a ‘method’ and everyone needs to ‘trust but verify’.
However, the point of this option is to make someone feel inferior, unintelligent or plain neglectful of science if they were to hesitate to be vaccinated. This again is a shaming perspective.
Not Bravery - this is an interesting option and once again based around the idea that Bravery is honourable and noble, and to not be brave is to lack honour and be ignoble - in other words to be a shameful coward and be the opposite of what those around you would praise. Instead of being looked up to and rewarded, you would be looked down on and despised.
So out of the five (5) emotional/social options, one relates to guilt and 4 relate to shame.
How does this speak to us as Christians in relation to the gospel message….
Honour and Shame are alive and well in our world and motivating aspects of life….including a COVID-19 Vaccine.
This then prompts us again as Christians, to think about how we are framing the gospel in the 21st Century particularly in relation to this second Yale research example.
Shame is not a new concept to the world, as I have talked about before. Some believe that ‘guilt’ is the ‘godly’ way to talk about wrong-doing, and shame is ‘ungodly’ and society’s pre-occupation with shame is evidence of its waywardness. However, guilt is not a more righteous or biblical concept than shame. In fact, the Bible speaks more about shame than guilt.
We may be seeing a ‘flare-up’ socially of all kinds of shame dynamics, but this is not because the world is becoming ‘ungodly’. It just means that the dynamic of shame is socially more ‘acceptable’ to speak about, and its coming at a time in which society wants to label certain actions as bad or good in shame terms.
What this era does tell us is that society is thinking more and more overtly in shame terms.
How people think is related to how they are motivated, how they process information, how they make decisions, set priorities, decide what is good and evil, and thus what they understand to be loving of neighbour or good for themselves.
If society is thinking in shame terms more and more (as this Yale research proposal could indicate), then they will be thinking through issues of right and wrong, good and bad, in shame terms. If those shame contexts are only framed by the world’s definition of what is and what is not shameful, society will of course be ‘off-track’.
But to get society back ‘on-track’ does not require a push to think in more ‘guilt’ terms, but to think in more biblically oriented shame terms.
Thinking through the gospel in term of shame is not only biblical but it is desperately needed by the church.
Because if the church can’t think about the gospel in shame terms, it will not be effective in sharing the gospel to a world that thinks in shame terms.
When we go cross-culturally we talk about sharing the gospel in the ‘heart language’ of the people, in the words and in the ways of how they think. We need to start doing that with our 21st Century world - we need to start once again sharing the gospel in ways that not only talk about guilt, but that are permeated with the contexts that surround the dynamics of shame.
The world is aware that in order to change people’s mind-set about an issue which they think is important, it is vital to think about how that message will best be received and acted upon.
How much more do we as Christians have a message that is important…eternally, not just temporarily, important?
How much more do we as Christians need to learn to understand biblically rooted ways to explain that message to the maybe 80% of the Western population who are primarily thinking in terms of shame?
Are you wanting to learn how to understand your own emotions of shame, or that of others, or that of society in general?
Are you wanting to understand more of what the Bible says about shame?
Are you wanting to share the gospel better to shame oriented hearers?
Here are a few book/blog suggestions.
- **NOTE: this post is not a place to go into the safety, protocols, politics etc of the race for a COVID-19 vaccine, nor is it an endorsement nor non-endorsement of a COVID-19 Vaccine nor in any way an encouragement or discouragement to get vaccinated. Up until yesterday, vaccines were still very much in the trial phase as and none were yet clear for general use in humans. While the UK has just approved one vaccine for use, Australia is holding back approving the same vaccine. Some have raised concerns about lack of adequate time being given to Phase 3 trials, to others who are concerned regarding the Oxford Vaccine’s background related to feotal cells. Others are concerned that Moderna are using technology never used before and as a company have never before completed research to a full in-use human vaccine. Outcomes remain to be seen. If you are interested in an easy read and simple clear graphic on the various COVID-19 vaccine development contexts take a look at this article, or read about the things to consider as a COVID vaccine is developed, in this article, or consider the science of the vaccines from a Christian perspective in this article from Creation Ministries International.
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