Amir Rafiei has long known that some topics can be divisive. But he hadn't realized how his own actions may have caused divides in his seemingly neutral hobby of filmmaking.
Sometimes he'd feel "locked in" with his own thoughts and ideas. He'd stop listening to what his collaborators were saying about shot techniques or narrative structures. Tensions would ratchet up. In one case, he walked away from a project entirely after a disagreement with actors about whether segmenting a film a certain way would ruin the storyline.
After a recent UC Berkeley summer class, however, "My mindset has slowly shifted."
Courtesy of Amir Rafiei
Rafiei is part of the first wave of students who have enrolled in a new Berkeley course on navigating disagreement and engaging with opposing viewpoints. The asynchronous online course launched this summer as part of the Berkeley Changemaker program. Students can sign up for a one-credit version; faculty, staff and alumni can now take a no-credit option for free.
An incoming third-year transfer student majoring in statistics, Rafiei learned how Berkeley faculty deal with combative critiques of their research and how social media algorithms and media bubbles deepen divides. He also learned how well-timed questions can lead to better listening and smoother conversations - lessons he's already taken into daily interactions.
"I personally thought taking the course Openness to Opposing Views would open up my mind about collaborating with others and being open to other ideas," Rafiei said. "It definitely did."
Almost 500 people have already enrolled, with thousands more anticipated this fall, said Laura Hassner, who codesigned the course with Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, a cultural demographer and executive dean of the College of Letters and Science.
Featuring interviews with a Nobel laureate, the provost and 20-plus scholars from 14 departments, Hassner said this kind of survey course could only happen at a place like Berkeley.
"Our Berkeley Changemakers have been asking for a class that would help them navigate charged conversations inside and outside of our classrooms," Hassner said. "Thanks to our donors, we're able to offer this course to our entire community. It's our hope that everyone has the opportunity to get better at constructive disagreement."
UC Berkeley News spoke with Rafiei about what made him want to take the class, how it has affected the way he interacts with others and why he thinks it's important for others to engage with opposing views - and also stand by some core beliefs.
UC Berkeley News: Thinking back on your experiences as a filmmaker, how has this class made you think about questions you might ask during the collaborative process differently?
Rafiei: I think there are two types of questions to ask. One is for telling the speaking partner that I'm listening to them. For instance, saying, "Is that right?" or "Is that true?"
Another type of question is to try to gain information from the partner, such as trying to understand where they're coming from and how they have come to have such ideas or trying to work with them on a solution for the problem.
For instance, in filmmaking, now I would try to ask questions or come up with a solution that would work for both sides. I would also encourage [collaborators] to be open-minded. The thing about being open-minded is that it's a two-way street. If one partner is open-minded, it would invite the other person or persons to be open-minded as well. Whereas if one person is close-minded, the other side would be close-minded.
We hear a lot about listening better. What's one tangible technique this class equipped you with?
I tend to get emotionally charged in conversations. This class taught me to stay grounded using empathy and deep breathing. I now recognize my emotions as distractions, not as signals to argue.
I now approach conversations with more curiosity.
Amir Rafiei, student
Now I see whenever I'm feeling either anger, sadness or anxiety, I first try to stay in the moment by deep breathing. I see the emotion that I'm feeling as a noise, as something that distracts me from actually hearing the other side. And then if I notice that the partner feels like I'm not listening to them, I would ask all the questions, "Is that true?" or "Is that right?" to let them know that I'm listening.
It used to be that whenever a person was disagreeing with me, before letting them finish their sentence, I'd cut them off. Now I try to take deep breaths and stay in the moment so that I can hear their full, complete thoughts before asking a question or providing an answer. If I just cut them off, I wouldn't be able to hear their complete side of the story.
Has the way you just generally interact with the people around you shifted since taking this class?
Definitely. At Cal and at work, I now approach conversations with more curiosity. I try to understand where people's ideas come from, rather than reacting to them too quickly.
This course really digs into how we consume news and information. Have you shifted anything about how you take in what's happening in the world?
Absolutely. I now seek out perspectives different from mine and read news from around the world. This class showed me the importance of breaking out of my information
bubble. It was one of my major fascinations with the class. I remember Professor Oliver O'Reilly's lecture, when he mentioned the idea that algorithms like social media are designed to lock the users, the consumers, in echo chambers. They constantly feed the users information that they want to hear. That perpetuates closed-mindedness.
Now I try to read news websites from around the world to consume diverse information so that I can have a more comprehensive view of what's going on.
Every lecture wraps up with a piece of advice for navigating our current social and political landscape. What's that single nugget of wisdom you'd offer?
True wisdom comes from being open to different perspectives. Most issues aren't black-and-white, so staying unbiased matters.
Still, on some topics, it's important to stand firm in your beliefs. In one of the lectures, Professor Dacher Keltner mentioned that there are still some ideas that we need to fight for. That also resonated with me. We don't have to always accept opposing views.
