And so, just like a scout, in contrast to the soldier, their role is not to attack or defend, but it's to go out, see what's really there and form as accurate a map of an issue or a situation as possible, including all of the uncertainties and unknowns.
So, it's reasoning that is genuinely directed at, to the best of your abilities, at figuring out what is actually true. So, I call that soldier mindset.Īnd the alternative to soldier mindset, which I call scout mindset, is more officially known as accuracy-motivated reasoning. And we talk about supporting, or buttressing, or strengthening our arguments with evidence, things like that. We talk about things like shooting down other ideas or poking holes in, or finding weak points in arguments. And this is evident even in the way we talk about argument, and reasoning, and beliefs. So, we're hunting for arguments in favor of something that we want to believe or that we already believe.Īnd so, I call it soldier mindset because it's very much like being a soldier on a battlefield, trying to defend the fortress of your beliefs against any evidence that could threaten to weaken or undermine it. We're not really aware that we're doing this, but unconsciously we're trying to reason and defend a particular predetermined conclusion. So, it's reasoning that is unconscious, usually. So, the official term for what I call soldier mindset in the cognitive science literature is directionally motivated reasoning. You also need to have the right motivation guiding that intelligence and knowledge in the right direction.Īnd so, the scout and the soldier are my metaphors for two very different kinds of motivations that can be guiding your thinking in the background. So, one of my core ideas that I'm always on about, and that I wrote a book about, is that being smart, and clever, and knowledgeable is not sufficient for seeing the world as clearly as possible. What are these two mindsets? Can you talk us through those, and how do they differ from one another? You even teased me a little bit before we started recording the podcast about this distinctive hand motion I made from one side to the other, and you knew exactly what it is that I was describing. It's good to be here.īrooke: You've talked about the difference between these two mindsets, soldiers and scouts. In today's episode, we'll be talking about soldiers and scouts, perseverance and adaptation, and reasonable ways to be rational. My guest today is Julia Galef, co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality and host of the Rationally Speaking Podcast. My name is Brooke Struck, a research director at TDL and I'll be your host for the discussion. And that is a messy business."īrooke: Hello everyone, and welcome to the podcast of The Decision Lab, a socially conscious applied research firm that uses behavioral science to improve outcomes for all of society. "You should be adjusting the strength of your beliefs to the strength of the evidence. "Try not to let too many things into your identity and try to be self-aware of the things that are part of your identity." So we're all a mix of both."Ī word of caution on anchoring our self-identities Or some people might be really good at being a scout about science, but not about politics. "I might be really good at being in scout mindset about, I don't know, my job, and then I might be much more likely to be a soldier in my personal relationships where I refuse to consider other people's perspectives or that I might have been wrong about something. And so, just like a scout, in contrast to the soldier, their role is not to attack or defend, but it's to go out, see what's really there and form as accurate a map of an issue or a situation as possible, including all of the uncertainties and unknowns." "It's reasoning that is genuinely directed at, to the best of your abilities, at figuring out what is actually true. The opposite of soldier mindset: the scout You also need to have the right motivation guiding that intelligence and knowledge in the right direction.” “Being smart, and clever, and knowledgeable is not sufficient for seeing the world as clearly as possible.
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