A Simple Mind Trick Will Help You Think More Rationally | Big Think
A Simple Mind Trick Will Help You Think More Rationally
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Emotions can cloud our rational decision-making. By adopting the perspective of an outside advisor, Duke University psychologist Dan Ariely says we can inject some rationality into our cognitive processes. This isn’t merely an exercise in introspection; it’s an attempt to remove the limiting pangs of irrational thinking.
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DAN ARIELY:
Dan Ariely is the James B Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. He is the founder of The Center for Advanced Hindsight and co-founder of BEworks, which helps business leaders apply scientific thinking to their marketing and operational challenges. His books include Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality, both of which became New York Times best-sellers. as well as The Honest Truth about Dishonesty and his latest, Irrationally Yours.
Ariely publishes widely in the leading scholarly journals in economics, psychology, and business. His work has been featured in a variety of media including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Business 2.0, Scientific American, Science and CNN.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Dan Ariely: There’s one way to be rational; there are many ways to be irrational. We could be irrational by getting confused, not taking actions, being myopic, vindictive, emotional. You name it. There’s lots of ways to be wrong. And because of that, there’s not one way to fix it.
But one interesting way to try and inject some rationality is to think from an outsider’s perspective. So here’s what happens. When you think about your own life, you’re trapped within your own perspective. You’re trapped within your own emotions and feelings and so on. But if you give advice to somebody else, all of a sudden you’re not trapped within that emotional combination, mish-mash, complexity and you can give advice that is more forward-looking and not so specific to the emotions.
So one idea is to basically ask people for advice. So if you’re falling in love with some person, good advice is to go to your mother and say, “Mother, what do you think about the long-term compatibility of that person?” You’re infatuated, right. When you’re infatuated you’re not able to see things three months down the road. You’re saying I’m infatuated. I’ll stay infatuated forever and this will never go away. Your mother being an outsider is not infatuated and she could probably look at things like long-term compatibility and so on. But there’s other ways to do it which is not to be advisors to other people but to be advisors for ourselves.
So for example, in one experiment, we asked people, we said, “Look, you went to your doctor. They gave you this diagnosis. You know that the thing that the doctor recommended is much more expensive and there are other things that would be much cheaper. Would you go for a second opinion?” And people say, “No, my doctor recommended it. How could I not take their advice? How could I say, ‘Can you please refer me for a second opinion?'” Then we asked another group. We said, “Here is the situation. If this happened to your friend, would you recommend that they go for a second opinion?” People said, “Absolutely. How could you not go for a second opinion?” So one idea is to try and get ourselves from an outside perspective. You look at the situation and then you say to yourself if this was about somebody else, somebody I love and care about and then when this situation what would I advise them? And you would realize that often your advice will be different and often a more rational, useful perspective.
Emotions can cloud our rational decision-making. By adopting the perspective of an outside advisor, Duke University psychologist Dan Ariely says we can inject some rationality into our cognitive processes. This isn’t merely an exercise in introspection; it’s an attempt to remove the limiting pangs of irrational thinking.
@eattheprogrammingcookie3957
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
Goated video
@eattheprogrammingcookie3957
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
Thank you my brother video was greatest of all times for me what a goat
@Krizz_Plays
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
00:00 bro started laughing when his voice became high pitched while saying rational
@xestermaxvolt
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
Another video watched and studied recommended by English teacher @mairovergara
@ash-shakirwhitaker7008
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
They say that: "Loving eyes, they can not see." (Good example…).
@sth86
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
loved it wisdom sorcerer
@rjbond007
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
neutral thinking gives a whole new perspective of life. much better life.
@ivogirotto9243
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
Thank you! This realy helped!
@trillbby
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
Well said🙌🏼
@UnlimitlesslyFunnyDude
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
conclusion : Ask for advice
@kwilson5832
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
This is good advice which I wish I had known about five years ago. My life may be completely different then. I could have been living in my own detached house, mortgage-free, married and possibly with child(ren) and have my dream job. Instead, I'm single and homeless, have a job which I hate and which pays less than one I could have applied for if I had been more rational. I have ruined someone else's life and cost myself about 6 years' net salary as a result of one irrational decision and the resulting indecisiveness.
Having said that, I did tell plenty of people my irrational plan that has got me in to the mess that I am in, but nobody spoke to me about it to tell me that I was wrong. I told them 'This is what I think I need to do', but there was one substantial element about my plan that I completely forgot about. I hadn't asked for advice about my plan, but I am disappointed that nobody pointed out my obvious omission.
@Dinquim
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
2:12
You look at the situation and then you say to yourself if this was about somebody else, somebody I love and care about and then when this situation… what would I advise them? And you would realize that often your advice will be different and often a more rational, useful perspective.
@أحمد-ر8ح6د
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
Bonus: how to be rational?
– Think in a foreign language
@mitfreude
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
so true, before thinking for yourself… see other people's view… if you get fooled by emotions, good luck having a hard time dealing with people….
@-umi503
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
Salute to this!
@jennileepruner
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
I would offer my Friend a ride for a second opinion and ask if they wanted me to go with Them.
@joshuahummel2858
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
Wow. This really gets at why exactly we even bother with the pursuit of objectivity and logical perfection. It also seems like a good explanation for why the concept of building self-esteem is so effective at fostering emotional stability and success for oneself. I've been trying to grapple with the enlightenment argument that democracy shouldn't come unadulterated, and this shows a decent rebuttal to its idea that "just because everyone thinks something is true doesn't make it so": your view of yourself is typically less objective than your view of someone else (specifically, someone with whom you associate no negative or passionate emotion), so having a "second opinion", as he said, is typically more effective than having just one.
@wandereroftheabyss-o4l
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
This actually works! Thank you!
@darkdante212
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
Damn. Really is that simple
@McPhee4ever
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
Exactly, it’s all about empathy, being able to empathize with that person, and think about what would they do if they were in their shoes.
@nikczemna_symulakra
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
Nope. Although one still may think this seems revolutionary.
You, who is thinking "oh, what would i tell a friend to do in such situation?", is STILL entangled in that particular problematic situation, and you ask your entangled(!) brain of what is to do right now; asking your – closed in a box – brain "oh, so now i just need to answer what is the weather outside my fancy box".
A rational advice requires a perspective with no conflict of interest, so to speak. In a 'you vs. you' situation another obstacle has just entered the room.. and it's called personal bias. Meaning, on top of that pathological process, a layer of certainty is being added: whatever you'll decide must be good because, you know.., you're convinced an objective and healthy route is kept.
Ps. Btw. //anecdotal evidence, so you can just skip it right away;] // i had tried to practice this for a few times when i was a teenager, wondering if this could at all improve my decision-making. Guess what happened..
@yigit_h
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
This guy is a walking rationality
@WinkLinkletter
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
The first (and last) time I didn't even ask my mom about a girl (14 years old) she told me that Donna (also 14) was only out to try and marry someone whose family had some money and wasn't really interested in me, citing her polite compliments on my mother's neurotically house-proud home as blatant coveting. Devastating to my adolescent self-esteem and pure projection, I've grown to realize, by my domineering, born poor country-come-to-town mother who married a submissive, very promising medical student (dad) at only 17.
I had brought Donna over after school, in part, because she was being physically abused by a much older boyfriend (I saw the black eyes, split lips, but Donna's parents LOVED Jeff…) and I was hoping she could have someone trustworthy and in a position to help to talk to about it, namely my doctor father. And while I didn't really, I later told my mom that I had told Donna what she said. I will always remember the look on her face, knowing she would be seeing the poor young girl around our small town.
It is very important to use other's perspectives to keep us headed straight, but careful with what you actually accept from whom, and take it all with grains of salt.
@robot.kareem
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
didn't know sylvester stallone is into psychology and stuff!
@tigerrx7
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
But mom it’s love at first sight, like you and dad!
@sushantsutar
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
His book, predictably irrational is phenomenal.
@troyhayder6986
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
I am very rational… Im a fucking programmer and I'm very very logical… But these fucking weirdos talking to me are spastics…
@cryxbaby2250
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
I dont trust my mom
@grandpiece5447
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
Who else lifts their hand like him on the thumbnail when they saw it.
@tjsoares4826
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
I liked it
@charlesjsescoto
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
Thumbs up
@untalked.dreams
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
hey, thank you so much. really helped. cheers x
@unclerat2131
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
It would be nice to see the end of the video before the next video choices drop in to block the video I'm watching.
@thedrivereraworld6033
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
A Simple Mind Trick Will Help You Think More Rationally (Transcrição)
There’s one way to be rational; there are many ways to be irrational. We could be irrational by getting confused, not taking actions, being myopic, vindictive, emotional. You name it. There’s lots of ways to be wrong. And because of that, there’s not one way to fix it.
But one interesting way to try and inject some rationality is to think from an outsider’s perspective. So here’s what happens. When you think about your own life, you’re trapped within your own perspective. You’re trapped within your own emotions and feelings and so on. But if you give advice to somebody else, all of a sudden you’re not trapped within that emotional combination, mish-mash, complexity and you can give advice that is more forward-looking and not so specific to the emotions.
So one idea is to basically ask people for advice. So if you’re falling in love with some person, good advice is to go to your mother and say, “Mother, what do you think about the long-term compatibility of that person?” You’re infatuated, right. When you’re infatuated you’re not able to see things three months down the road. You’re saying I’m infatuated. I’ll stay infatuated forever and this will never go away. Your mother being an outsider is not infatuated and she could probably look at things like long-term compatibility and so on. But there’s other ways to do it which is not to be advisors to other people but to be advisors for ourselves.
So for example, in one experiment, we asked people, we said, “Look, you went to your doctor. They gave you this diagnosis. You know that the thing that the doctor recommended is much more expensive and there are other things that would be much cheaper. Would you go for a second opinion?” And people say, “No, my doctor recommended it. How could I not take their advice? How could I say, ‘Can you please refer me for a second opinion?'” Then we asked another group. We said, “Here is the situation. If this happened to your friend, would you recommend that they go for a second opinion?” People said, “Absolutely. How could you not go for a second opinion?” So one idea is to try and get ourselves from an outside perspective. You look at the situation and then you say to yourself if this was about somebody else, somebody I love and care about and then when this situation… what would I advise them? And you would realize that often your advice will be different and often a more rational, useful perspective.
@ndstiktokmashup1393
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
I knew about this trick since a long time ago, but when things like really hard happened to me, like let go of someone with such beautiful memories with you… it's not that easy to just dump and leave clean..
@FPSmaster291
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
The informations from the video werr helpful👍
@raquelferreira6061
November 4, 2025 at 7:27 pm
There’s one way to be rational; there are many ways to be irrational.
We could be irrational by getting confused, not taking actions, being myopic, vindictive, emotional. You name it.
There’s lots of ways to be wrong. And because of that, there’s not one way to fix it.
But one interesting way to try and inject some rationality is to think from an outsider’s perspective.
So here’s what happens. When you think about your own life, you’re trapped within your own perspective.
You’re trapped within your own emotions and feelings and so on. But if you give advice to somebody else, all of a sudden you’re not trapped within that emotional combination, mish-mash, complexity and you can give advice that is more forward-looking and not so specific to the emotions.
So one idea is to basically ask people for advice. So if you’re falling in love with some person, good advice is to go to your mother and say, “Mother, what do you think about the long-term compatibility of that person?” You’re infatuated, right.
When you’re infatuated you’re not able to see things three months down the road. You’re saying I’m infatuated.
I’ll stay infatuated forever and this will never go away. Your mother being an outsider is not infatuated and she could probably look at things like long-term compatibility and so on.
But there’s other ways to do it which is not to be advisors to other people but to be advisors for ourselves.
So for example, in one experiment, we asked people, we said, “Look, you went to your doctor. They gave you this diagnosis.
You know that the thing that the doctor recommended is much more expensive and there are other things that would be much cheaper.
Would you go for a second opinion?” And people say, “No, my doctor recommended it. How could I not take their advice? How could I say, ‘Can you please refer me for a second opinion?'” Then we asked another group.
We said, “Here is the situation. If this happened to your friend, would you recommend that they go for a second opinion?” People said, “Absolutely.
How could you not go for a second opinion?” So one idea is to try and get ourselves from an outside perspective.
You look at the situation and then you say to yourself if this was about somebody else, somebody I love and care about and then when this situation… what would I advise them?
And you would realize that often your advice will be different and often a more rational, useful perspective.
Comments are closed.