The Case for Strictness Over Leniency

Increasingly, we venerate leniency over strictness, for example, the “kindly” boss, judge, spouse, or teacher. 

Students routinely give better evaluations to easy-grading professors. We respect  the decisionmaker who gives slack because of the “externalities” that contribute to a person’s bad behavior rather than a decisionmaker who rejects all but clearly serious and legitimate excuses.

I’m certainly not calling for the cruelty of a Dickensian villain but at the risk of seeming hyperbolic, I believe the trend to replacing strictness with leniency is a core cause of America’s descent. I make the case in my PsychologyToday.com article today.