This week the blog is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of The Art of Disagreeing by Gavin Ortlund. In this positive and practical book, Gavin Ortlund looks to the Scriptures to discover a way to disagree with courage and kindness. You can purchase The Art of Disagreeing here.
There is a theory in social psychology about two contrasting ways in which people deal with disagreement. Essentially, about half of human beings act like rhinoceroses: the other half, like hedgehogs. Rhinos are aggressive, charging when threatened. Hedgehogs are more defensive, using their prickles as a shield. One book puts it like this:
“Just as animals respond differently to attack, so people react differently when hurt and angry. There are two major patterns of behaviour, and … it would appear that the population is split roughly fifty-fifty. Half of the population are like the rhino: when they
are angry, they let you know it. The other half of the population are like the hedgehog: when they feel angry, they hide their feelings.”
Whether you adopt this exact framework or not, it draws attention to an important fact: when
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