Why We United After 9/11—But Less So For COVID

September 11th and NYPD: The Legacy
In this 20th anniversary series, WNYC/Gothamist is exploring how the September 11th attacks fundamentally changed the NYPD, its approach to policing and the city's relationship with the nation's largest municipal police department. For links to all of the stories we've published and for more about how WNYC, Gothamist and New York Public Radio is recognizing this anniversary, scroll to the bottom of this story.

The days after September 11th are mostly remembered as a time when the country came together, where our grief turned to unity around a common cause. President George W. Bush’s approval famously vaulted from 50% to 90% after the terror attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, a higher rating than basically every president since Harry Truman.

Such togetherness might seem surprising in the modern polarized environment. While 9/11 bred unity in New York City and across the country, other mass tragedies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, often fail to do the same. The contrasting responses speak to how the human brain seeks out unity—and the influence of leadership over that desire.

When people face an external threat or collective trauma like 9/11, it can reshape our identities. Our partisan and social definitions—liberal or conservative, pro-militarization or not—begin to wilt, and our shared identities grow in their place.

"People started to process a series of events...feel emotions and build memories that were through the lens of that collective identity as Americans," said Dr. Jay Van Bavel, a social psychologist and neuroscientist at New York University. He studies how humans build groups and the collective concerns that shape our minds, brains, and behaviors. He is also the co-author of a new book called The Power of Us. Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony.

Humans, he says, adapted to become the dominant, terraforming species on our planet, in part, because we have a knack for partnership. The human drive for forming social groups dates back 52 million years and is so strong that it borders on addiction.

"We're not as fast as some predators. We don't have sharp teeth or long claws," Van Bavel said, "but what set humans apart in terms of our evolutionary advantage was being able to cooperate with one another and communicate and work together."

But at the core of all that human togetherness is an aggressive side, a sense of protecting "us" against "them." A month after the nation was attacked by Al-Qaeda, nine out of 10 Americans supported the U.S. decision to invade Afghanistan.

That's because people cannot unite in one group without naturally excluding others. Unity needs division. And partisanship would ultimately creep into the conversation around wars in the Middle East. Only 70% of Americans approved of the Iraq War when it launched in spring 2003. But even though the appeal dropped around the military conflicts, President Bush would still evoke 9/11 as a rallying cry.

"My fellow Americans, for as long as our country stands, people will look to the resurrection of New York City and they will say: Here buildings fell, here a nation rose," Bush said at the 2004 Republican National Convention. By then, the pushback was immense. As Gothamist reported previously:

"We really resented the militarization of the United States, the pro-military feel in our name, and our name as New Yorkers," said Jonathan, a WNYC listener who called into the Brian Lehrer Show this week to discuss the 2004 protests. "We were the ones who were traumatized. We were the ones who lost friends. We were the ones who dealt with the situation on the ground for days and weeks and months."

The wars would become a major talking point for years, as the nation became more partisan. By some measures, the U.S. is the most divided it’s been in at least 40 years. Van Bavel says these social and political divisions are nothing new. In fact, they’re also part of our biology. Scientists know that because of studies of identical twins, where one child was raised in a Democratic family, and the other was raised Republican.

"What the research suggests is that at least 40 to 50% of our political preferences are just determined by our basic biology that we have from our parents," Van Bavel said. "It turns out if you follow those twins 20 years later, they're more likely to share the same politics then than you'd think. And it's because even if they’re living in those very different environments, their biology guides them politically to certain types of preferences."

The other half of our partisan thinking is molded by social and societal cues, such as what our local and national leaders tell us. Here is where our collective COVID response differed from the unity seen after 9/11. President Donald Trump sometimes told Americans to follow COVID precautions but also expressed a go-it-alone approach against the advice of his health team.

"America will again soon be open for business...a lot sooner than 3-4 months that someone was suggesting," Trump said in March 2020, after his health advisers warned that COVID measures might need to be sustained. "We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself."

America's heated divisions predated President Donald Trump, but his comments drove how some people viewed the pandemic. COVID-19's death toll in the United States is akin to a 9/11 event happening every day for more than 200 days, but wide political margins remain for mask use and vaccination.

Ultimately, Van Bavel says we can build groups and identities that are more inclusive, embrace difference and aid our survival...Or we can carve up the world into smaller and smaller identities and mistreat outsiders with aggression to our detriment.

"In a pandemic truth matters and, and science matters," Van Bavel said. "So if your belief system means that you won't get vaccinated and that increases the probability that you will die and kill your family and friends and coworkers, then that false belief has tragic consequences."

September 11th Special Coverage
New York Public Radio has extensive programming planned to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001. It includes news analysis and coverage on WNYC radio and Gothamist, special live coverage of the memorial on September 11, news coverage in the days leading up to September 11, and music of reflection and commemoration on classical station WQXR. Details follow:

September 11 and NYPD: The Legacy
About this series: Dozens of journalists and engineers in the WNYC newsroom came together to produce this series for Gothamist and WNYC radio. The series, which ends on September 11, explores how the terror attacks 20 years ago fundamentally changed the NYPD. The 20th anniversary comes amid another critical moment in U.S. history: a reckoning over race and policing, here in New York City and across the country. Over the last two decades, the NYPD has undergone a dramatic transformation, growing in capacity, reach, and power. Those changes are evident today in virtually every aspect of policing in New York City -- from the department’s enforcement around street protests, to its vast international network, to its presence on mass transit, to its all-round philosophy of public safety.
Day One: NYPD's history from founding to 9/11

Day Two: How NYPD's Powers Expanded After 9/11

Day Three: A Legacy of Police Surveillance (Part One and Part Two)

Day Four: See Something, Say Something

Day Five: America's Mayor and NYPD

Day Six: Living with Trauma: COVID-19 and 9/11; The Sacrifice of Survivors

Live Memorial  Coverage
On September 11, WNYC's Brian Lehrer will host special live coverage of official memorial ceremonies starting at 8:35 a.m. At 11 a.m., WNYC will air "Blindspot: The Road to 9/11," a two-hour radio documentary adapted from the nine-part podcast hosted by WNYC's Jim O Grady.

WQXR
Classical music station WQXR also has special programming planned throughout the day on September 11. The program includes a segment on John Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning composition "On the Transmigration of Souls," performed by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and the New York Philharmonic.For other radio news programming planned during the week click here.