Thank you for this feedback, Natalie, and for pointing me to The Knowledge Gap.

You are right, of course, that only Batson knows what was in his heart when he heard Sellers’ remarks. But my gut tells me that it was something like, “Wince! I wish she hadn’t said that.” Again, I don’t know if that was or was not Batson’s reaction, but I do know that human beings face moments like these all the time. It’s a feature (not a bug) of human conversation that we often need time and space (not to mention some measure of humility) to think through what should be said. My primary concern is that by punishing the Batsons of the world, we rob ourselves of these essential design principles of the good conversation. Again, thanks for offering me your thoughts.