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Chapter 26 - Building Better Beliefs through Actively Open-Minded Thinking

from Toward Better Beliefs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2022

By
S. Emlen Metz
Edited by
Julien Musolino ,
Joseph Sommer  and
Pernille Hemmer
Julien Musolino
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Joseph Sommer
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Pernille Hemmer
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
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Summary

The accelerating development of technological power over ourselves and our environment raises the stakes of getting our beliefs right. I suggest that we can significantly improve our processes of belief formation by increasing actively open-minded thinking (AOT). Actively open-minded thinking helps us form more accurate and well-rounded beliefs by increasing the depth and – more importantly – the breadth of information search and inference. Because individuals do not always have time for adequate investigation, AOT is also a valuable indicator of which epistemic authorities are most likely to have reached accurate conclusions via effective methods. It is associated with better reasoning across a wide variety of contexts, leading to beliefs that are more accurate, more complete, and less biased. Yet it is not regularly taught in schools, nor is it a feature of typical public discourse. I suggest several strategies for increasing this cognitive habit in school and society.

Keywords

beliefcritical thinkingactively open-minded thinkinginformation searchmisinformationauthoritydialogueprobabilistic reasoningEthics Bowl
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cognitive Science of Belief
A Multidisciplinary Approach
 , pp. 574 - 591
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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