Just calling yourself rational doesn’t make you more rational. In fact, hyping yourself up about how you and your in-group are more rational than other people is a recipe for being overconfidently wrong.
Getting ideas right takes humility and curiosity about what other people think. Some people pay lip service to the idea of being open to changing their mind, but then, in practice, it feels like they would rather die than admit they were wrong.
This is tied to the idea of humiliation. If disagreement is a humiliation contest, changing one’s mind can feel emotionally unbearable. Because it feels as if to change your mind is to accept that you deserve to be humiliated, that it’s morally appropriate. Conversely, if you humiliated others (or attempted to), to admit you were wrong about the idea is to admit you wronged these people, and did something immoral. That too can feel unbearable.
So, a few practical recommendations:
-Don’t call yourself rational or anything similar -Try to practice humility when people disagree with you -Try to be curious about what other people think -Be kind to people when you disagree so it’s easier to admit if they were right -Avoid people who aren’t kind to you when you disagree so it’s easier to admit if you were wrong
Just calling yourself rational doesn’t make you more rational. In fact, hyping yourself up about how you and your in-group are more rational than other people is a recipe for being overconfidently wrong.
Getting ideas right takes humility and curiosity about what other people think. Some people pay lip service to the idea of being open to changing their mind, but then, in practice, it feels like they would rather die than admit they were wrong.
This is tied to the idea of humiliation. If disagreement is a humiliation contest, changing one’s mind can feel emotionally unbearable. Because it feels as if to change your mind is to accept that you deserve to be humiliated, that it’s morally appropriate. Conversely, if you humiliated others (or attempted to), to admit you were wrong about the idea is to admit you wronged these people, and did something immoral. That too can feel unbearable.
So, a few practical recommendations:
-Don’t call yourself rational or anything similar
-Try to practice humility when people disagree with you
-Try to be curious about what other people think
-Be kind to people when you disagree so it’s easier to admit if they were right
-Avoid people who aren’t kind to you when you disagree so it’s easier to admit if you were wrong