High Conflict, Amanda Ripley
High Conflict, Amanda Ripley
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High Conflict
Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out

Author: Amanda Ripley

Narrator: Amanda Ripley

Unabridged: 9 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/06/2021

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

When we are baffled by the insanity of the “other side”—in our politics, at work, or at home—it’s because we aren’t seeing how the conflict itself has taken over.

That’s what “high conflict” does. It’s the invisible hand of our time. And it’s different from the useful friction of healthy conflict. That’s good conflict, and it’s a necessary force that pushes us to be better people.

High conflict is what happens when discord distills into a good-versus-evil kind of feud, the kind with an us and a them. In this state, the brain behaves differently. We feel increasingly certain of our own superiority, and everything we do to try to end the conflict, usually makes it worse. Eventually, we can start to mimic the behavior of our adversaries, harming what we hold most dear.

In this “compulsively readable” (Evan Osnos, National Book Award-winning author) book, New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Amanda Ripley investigates how good people get captured by high conflict—and how they break free.

Our journey begins in California, where a world-renowned conflict expert struggles to extract himself from a political feud. Then we meet a Chicago gang leader who dedicates his life to a vendetta—only to realize, years later, that the story he’d told himself about the conflict was not quite true. Next, we travel to Colombia, to find out whether thousands of people can be nudged out of high conflict at scale. Finally, we return to America to see what happens when a group of liberal Manhattan Jews and conservative Michigan corrections officers choose to stay in each other’s homes in order to understand one another better, even as they continue to disagree.

All these people, in dramatically different situations, were drawn into high conflict by similar forces, including conflict entrepreneurs, humiliation, and false binaries. But ultimately, all of them found ways to transform high conflict into good conflict, the kind that made them better people. They rehumanized and recatego­rized their opponents, and they revived curiosity and wonder, even as they continued to fight for what they knew was right.

People do escape high conflict. Individuals—even entire communities—can short-circuit the feedback loops of outrage and blame, if they want to. This is an “insightful and enthralling” (The New York Times Book Review) book—and a mind-opening new way to think about conflict that will transform how we move through the world.

Featuring audio highlights from actual interviews, town hall meetings, and podcasts.

About Amanda Ripley

Amanda Ripley is the New York Times bestselling author of The Smartest Kids in the World, High Conflict, and The Unthinkable. She writes for The Atlantic, Politico, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications.


Reviews

I read this book within a day. The concept of high conflict is portrayed in a well-researched and relatable manner. Amanda Ripley is an eloquent writer and her organization of ideas and stories is brilliant - I was hooked from the Introduction and by the time I was at the end of the last chapter, I......more

Goodreads review by Rick

Recommended for : all politicians : Uncle Harry before the next Thanksgiving : Many Fox News pundits The last four years have been brutal. The election of President Trump, whether you liked the guy or not,  sent everybody to their respective corners to hurl insults at each other and not even try to unde......more

Goodreads review by Thomas

This book is an Interesting discussion on conflict but it contains a lot of interpretation and opinion. To explain, “Good conflict” is healthy conflict in which questions get asked, in which there is curiosity and movement in opinions. “High conflict” on the other hand is what happens when conflict......more

Goodreads review by Andrea

I found this book interesting but not particularly useful. Ripley very capably tells the easy parts of the story, roughly captured in the subtitle: why we get trapped and how to get out. But the trickier parts, though often alluded to, are otherwise avoided: what is high conflict, when is it necessar......more