Ideas worth spreading

Perché pensi di avere ragione - anche quando hai torto

7,930,238 views |

Julia Galef |

TEDxPSU

• February 2016

La prospettiva è tutto, specialmente quando si tratta di esaminare le tue convinzioni. Sei un soldato, incline a difendere il tuo punto di vista a ogni costo - o uno scout, spronato dalla curiosità? Julia Galef esamina le motivazioni dietro a queste due mentalità e come formano il modo in cui interpretiamo le informazioni, e le intreccia con un'efficace lezione di storia dalla Francia del diciannovesimo secolo. Quando le tue salde opinioni sono messe alla prova, Galef chiede: “Cosa desideri di più? Vuoi il difendere le tue convinzioni o vuoi vedere il mondo nel modo più chiaro possibile?"

La prospettiva è tutto, specialmente quando si tratta di esaminare le tue convinzioni. Sei un soldato, incline a difendere il tuo punto di vista a ogni costo - o uno scout, spronato dalla curiosità? Julia Galef esamina le motivazioni dietro a queste due mentalità e come formano il modo in cui interpretiamo le informazioni, e le intreccia con un'efficace lezione di storia dalla Francia del diciannovesimo secolo. Quando le tue salde opinioni sono messe alla prova, Galef chiede: “Cosa desideri di più? Vuoi il difendere le tue convinzioni o vuoi vedere il mondo nel modo più chiaro possibile?"

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.

About the speaker

Julia Galef

See speaker profile

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.)'

Learn more

About TEDx

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." It supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community.

Find a TEDx event near you

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.