[Ilya Somin] A warning against trigger warnings

The University of Chicago recently sent a letter to incoming students explaining why they do not restrict potentially offensive speech, or give “trigger warnings” when potentially sensitive issues are going to be covered in class. Chicago’s policy is commendable. Not only do trigger warnings inhibit free discussion of difficult issues, social science research suggests that they cause more pain and anxiety than they alleviate.

One of the law school courses I teach at George Mason University is Constitutional Law II, which focuses on the Fourteenth Amendment and its history. The class necessarily addresses many painful and difficult issues. Instead of offering trigger warnings, on the first day of class I give the students what I like to call my “warning against trigger warnings.” It goes something like this:

“I don’t believe in trigger warnings. But if I did, I would have to include one for virtually every day of this course. We are going to cover subjects like slavery, segregation, sexism, suicide, the death penalty, and abortion. There is no way to teach this course without discussing these issues. And there is no good way to cover them without also considering a wide range of views about these subjects and their relationship to the Constitution.”

Students seem to get the point, and I have never had any real trouble over these matters (even though surveys show that the majority of George Mason law student have views well to the left of mine). I even tend to get higher student evaluations in Constitutional Law II than in my other courses, which deal with less sensitive subjects. Much more importantly, we are able to have open discussions about these issues and the judiciary’s treatment of them – which would be much harder to do if I had to offer constant trigger warnings.