Ideas worth spreading

Why you think you're right -- even if you're wrong

7,925,906 views |

Julia Galef |

TEDxPSU

• February 2016

Perspective is everything, especially when it comes to examining your beliefs. Are you a soldier, prone to defending your viewpoint at all costs -- or a scout, spurred by curiosity? Julia Galef examines the motivations behind these two mindsets and how they shape the way we interpret information, interweaved with a compelling history lesson from 19th-century France. When your steadfast opinions are tested, Galef asks: "What do you most yearn for? Do you yearn to defend your own beliefs or do you yearn to see the world as clearly as you possibly can?"

Perspective is everything, especially when it comes to examining your beliefs. Are you a soldier, prone to defending your viewpoint at all costs -- or a scout, spurred by curiosity? Julia Galef examines the motivations behind these two mindsets and how they shape the way we interpret information, interweaved with a compelling history lesson from 19th-century France. When your steadfast opinions are tested, Galef asks: "What do you most yearn for? Do you yearn to defend your own beliefs or do you yearn to see the world as clearly as you possibly can?"

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxPSU, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

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About the speaker

Julia Galef

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Julia Galef investigates how and why people change their minds.

Maria Konnikova | The New Yorker | Article

I Don't Want to be Right

This is an accessible article from The New Yorker discussing the work of political scientist Brendan Nyhan on motivated cognition and a potential solution (article links to a relevant study).

Sample quote: 'It’s the realization that persistently false beliefs stem from issues closely tied to our conception of self that prompted Nyhan and his colleagues to look at less traditional methods of rectifying misinformation... The theory, pioneered by Claude Steele, suggests that, when people feel their sense of self threatened by the outside world, they are strongly motivated to correct the misperception, be it by reasoning away the inconsistency or by modifying their behavior.'

Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner | Crown, 2015 | Book

Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

This is a great book on the habits and traits of the most accurate forecasters. Tetlock's research supports my thesis that the motivation to pursue accuracy (scout mindset) is crucial to actually being right.

Sample quote: 'A brilliant puzzle solver may have the raw material for forecasting, but if he doesn’t also have an appetite for questioning basic, emotionally charged beliefs he will often be at a disadvantage relative to a less intelligent person who has a greater capacity for self-critical thinking. It’s not the raw crunching power you have that matters most. It’s what you do with it.'

Julia Galef | Watch

How to change your mind

Here I offer some suggestions for shifting yourself into scout mindset (i.e., boosting your motivation to see things accurately, even if that means acknowledging you were wrong before).

Sample quote: 'We get so attached to ideas that we think of them as part of ourselves, so that when someone attacks a belief we hold, it feels like an attack on us personally, and we automatically jump into defensive mode. To prevent that from happening, I try thinking of my belief as no longer being my belief, just a belief that I'm examining alongside other alternatives. (In fact, I find it useful to visualize this figuratively, imagining the belief under discussion as being located somewhere a few feet away from my body. Weird, but you'd be surprised how much it can help lessen your sense of identification with the idea.)'

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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxPSU, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

Sign up for Julia Galef's mailing list and learn more about scout mindset and rationality.