What is naive realism?

0:00 Welcome to Philosophy is not boring by Kadopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn! Today we are sending a big hello to seven-year-old Alice, four-year-old Elon, and one-year-old Liam in Dublin, Ireland. Wait, how do you pronounce that middle name again? It's pronounced Elin. They asked us a brilliant question.

0:22 Why do people disagree? And why can't we all just get along? This episode is for all three of you.

0:29 If you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode.

0:34 So, think about the last time you got into a huge argument with someone. Maybe it was over what game to play at recess, or who got the bigger half of a cookie, or what movie to watch on Family Movie Night.

0:47 Ugh, my friends and I argued forever yesterday about whether a hot dog is a sandwich. It got pretty heated. People were raising their voices and everything.

0:58 Exactly. And in the middle of that argument, didn't you feel like you were 100% absolutely perfectly right?

1:06 Well, yeah, because I was. A hot dog is definitely not a sandwich. It's its own thing. Anyone who thinks it's a sandwich is just being ridiculous.

1:17 But your friends felt just as certain that they were right. Why does that happen? Why is it so hard to just agree? And why do our brains instantly decide that anyone who disagrees with us must be broken?

1:29 Yeah, why do our brains do that? Like, how can two people look at the exact same hot dog and see something totally different?

1:37 To answer that, we have to travel back in time. Over 2,000 years ago, in ancient India, philosophers told a famous story to explain this exact problem. Ooh, a story? What is it? Does it have monsters in it? No monsters, but it does have a very big animal. It's the parable of the blind men and the elephant.

2:01 Imagine a group of men who have never seen an elephant before, and they are all blind. One day they encounter an elephant and they all reach out to touch it so they can understand what it is.

2:13 Okay, that makes perfect sense. They're using their hands to see, which is a great way to figure things out.

2:19 Right, but they all stand in different spots. The first man touches the elephant's long, squiggly trunk. He feels it moving and says, wow, an elephant is basically a giant snake.

2:34 A snake? That's funny. But I guess if you only felt a trunk, it does kind of feel like a snake.

2:40 Exactly. Then the second man touches the elephant's thick, sturdy leg. He says, No, it isn't. An elephant is round and tall, just like a tree trunk. Wait, a tree? But what about the other guys? The third man touches the elephant's huge side and says it's a solid wall. Another touches its wide, floppy ear and swears it's a giant fan.

3:05 So they all felt a totally different part, and they thought that one single part was the whole entire animal.

3:12 Yes, and the story goes that they started arguing furiously. Each man thought the others were lying, or just totally confused, because they knew what they felt with their own two hands. They were all completely certain. But they were all technically right.

3:29 They just didn't have the whole picture. If they had just traded places, they would have figured it out.

3:35 Bingo. But they didn't, because they were too busy arguing. And this doesn't just happen with elephants. In the 1990s, a psychologist named Lee Ross at Stanford University noticed that humans do this all the time.

3:51 Do what? Walk around touching elephants in the dark?

3:56 No! We assume that the little piece of the world we see is the whole, complete truth. Lee Ross called this habit naive realism.

4:06 Naive realism? That sounds like a fancy science term. What does it actually mean for me and my friends?

4:13 It means we walk around believing that we see reality purely, exactly as it is. We think our brains are perfect video cameras, taking in objective facts.

4:24 Well, I mean, I do see things as they are. If it's raining outside, it's raining. That's just a fact.

4:31 Sure, for the simple stuff like the weather. But what about when things are complicated? Like whether a game is fair, or whether a joke is funny. Naive realism says that because we think our own view is perfectly clear, we make a massive mistake when someone disagrees with us.

4:49 Uh-oh, I don't like massive mistakes. What is it?

4:53 We assume that anyone who disagrees with us must either be misinformed, totally biased, or just plain crazy. We think if they just saw the facts, they would agree with me. And if they still don't agree, something must be wrong with their brain.

5:09 Oh wait, that is exactly what I thought about my friends during the hot dog argument. I thought they were just being ridiculous and not listening to reason. I completely forgot they might just have a different perspective.

5:22 Exactly. Instead of thinking, hey, maybe they're touching a different part of the elephant. We just think they're completely broken.

5:30 Wow. Okay, so if we all have naive realism and we all think we're the only right ones, how do we ever get along? Are we just doomed to argue forever?

5:42 Nope. And that brings us to another amazing psychologist named Muzafer Sharif. Back in 1954, he wanted to find the secret to making enemies get along, so he designed a really famous experiment. How did he test it?

5:58 Did he lock people in a room until they agreed?

6:01 He actually set up a summer camp at Roberts Cave State Park. He took 22 boys, split them into two teams, called the Eagles and the Rattlers, and had them compete in games like baseball and tug of war until they really didn't like each other.

6:17 Ew, summer camp fights are the worst. Did they start calling each other names?

6:22 They did. They refused to eat in the same room and argued constantly. Sharif proved it is shockingly easy to make people turn into enemies. But then he tried to fix it. He tried having them just hang out or watch movies together, but they kept fighting. So sitting them next to each other didn't work.

6:43 What did? The only thing that finally worked was giving them a shared problem. He arranged for the camp's water supply to break down. Suddenly, both teams were really thirsty. To get the water running again, they had to inspect a long pipe together. Sharif called this a superordinate goal. A super what?

7:05 A superordinate goal. It's a problem so big that you can't solve it without the people you disagree with. Later, a truck bringing their food got stuck in the mud. The boys had to use the exact same tug-of-war rope they had fought over earlier to pull the truck out together.

7:23 Wait, so when they needed each other's help to solve a big problem, they forgot about being enemies. The rope went from a weapon to a tool. Yes!

7:33 Division disappears when we actually need each other. A superordinate goal forces us to step back and realize we're all just trying to get the water flowing or the truck moving.

7:45 That is kind of amazing. It completely changed how they saw each other.

7:50 It really did. And this is why this matters to you right now. The next time you're in a huge fight with a sibling or a friend, remember the elephant. Ask yourself, what part of the elephant are they touching that I can't see?

8:04 Oh, I like that. And if we're still stuck in an argument, we can try to find a superordinate goal. Like, if my sister and I are fighting over a toy, but then mum says we have to clean the whole playroom, or no TV, suddenly we're a team.

8:21 Exactly! You team up against the messy room. It changes everything. Speaking of changing things, are you ready for some fun facts?

8:30 Always. Did you know that the elephant parable is incredibly ancient? It has been shared for over 2,000 years by Jains, Buddhists, and Hindus. That is thousands of years of people reminding each other not to be know-it-alls.

8:44 That is incredible! And here's a fun fact about Lee Ross, the psychologist who studied naive realism. When he taught his classes, he used to quote a funny joke about driving to explain how our brains work. What was the joke? He would say, have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?

9:07 We always think our own speed is the only correct one. Alright, Finn, time for the quiz. Are you ready?

9:13 Okay, I'm ready. Let's do this.

9:16 First question. Where did the famous parable of the blind men and the elephant originate? Next one. In that story, what did the man who touched the elephant's trunk think it was? Question 3. What phrase did psychologist Lee Ross invent for our habit of thinking we see the world perfectly? Here's number four.

9:49 What year did Muzafer Sharif do his summer camp experiment? Last question. What is the fancy term for a big shared problem that forces arguing people to work together? Great job! Let's see how you did. The first answer is, it originated in ancient India. For question two, he thought the trunk was a giant snake.

10:20 The answer to number three is Naive realism. For question four, the experiment took place in 1954. And the final answer is a superordinate goal.

10:34 You know, I'm definitely going to think about the elephant next time I argue about something silly.

10:40 Me too. It feels good to know that we don't have to be perfectly right all the time. We just have to be willing to listen.

10:48 If this episode helped you see a new part of the elephant, please leave us a five-star review. Just scroll down and tap the stars.

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11:13 See you next time on Philosophy is not boring. Bye everyone.