The Elephant and the Rider
NYU psychologist Jonathan Haidt describes the brain as “the elephant and the rider.” The analogy describes the emotional side of the brain as an “elephant,” and the rational side of the brain as a “rider”. Before we can truly identify and work on our own biases, we need to get the elephant and the rider working together, meaning the emotional and rational sides.
This exercise should help you direct your rational side (the rider) whilst motivating your emotional side (the elephant) to stay on task and complete the toolkit.
To get you started, write down the conscious goals you want to achieve using this toolkit. List as many as you would like!
Example
My conscious goals for using this toolkit:
- “I hope to understand my biases, and know how to identify when I am being biased.”
Now, what do you think you will need to do to motivate the elephant (the emotional side of your brain) so it doesn’t derail you from your goal?
Media Attributions
- Elephant © PikWizard is licensed under a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license
