In this game, people mention different beliefs of theirs. The beliefs don’t necessarily need to be anything controversial: even various ordinary beliefs work. So anything from “I believe global warming is happening” to “I believe I have an intuition about people generally being good” to “I believe my neighbor’s car is red”. Then each person will try to think about various reasons for why they’ve come to have this belief. Note that in the example, “I believe I have an intuition about people generally being good” is a distinct belief from “I believe in people generally being good”. You can either think about why you believe you have such an intuition, or, presuming that you do have that intuition, why you have it.
Feel free to go as many levels deep as you feel is necessary, either for explaining your belief or for keeping the discussion interesting. If you state that you believe in global warming because an expert said so, it’s probably worth also mentioning why you believe in this expert in particular, since it’s a contentious subject. On the other hand, if you state that you believe your neighbor’s car to be red because you’ve seen it and it was red, you may want to elaborate on e.g. how you know it was your neighbor’s car, simply because your answer would be rather boring otherwise.
Try not to challenge each other’s beliefs. The goal is not to have a debate, but to engage in an open-minded deconstruction of the reasons for why you think what you think. By making the game into an exercise where everyone is free to name even the silliest causes for their beliefs, people become more likely to actually adjust beliefs that they notice to be on shaky ground. If somebody asks other people for an opinion on whether their reasoning makes sense, feel free to answer, but do try to keep it non-confrontational.
Cause and Belief
In this game, people mention different beliefs of theirs. The beliefs don’t necessarily need to be anything controversial: even various ordinary beliefs work. So anything from “I believe global warming is happening” to “I believe I have an intuition about people generally being good” to “I believe my neighbor’s car is red”. Then each person will try to think about various reasons for why they’ve come to have this belief. Note that in the example, “I believe I have an intuition about people generally being good” is a distinct belief from “I believe in people generally being good”. You can either think about why you believe you have such an intuition, or, presuming that you do have that intuition, why you have it.
Feel free to go as many levels deep as you feel is necessary, either for explaining your belief or for keeping the discussion interesting. If you state that you believe in global warming because an expert said so, it’s probably worth also mentioning why you believe in this expert in particular, since it’s a contentious subject. On the other hand, if you state that you believe your neighbor’s car to be red because you’ve seen it and it was red, you may want to elaborate on e.g. how you know it was your neighbor’s car, simply because your answer would be rather boring otherwise.
Try not to challenge each other’s beliefs. The goal is not to have a debate, but to engage in an open-minded deconstruction of the reasons for why you think what you think. By making the game into an exercise where everyone is free to name even the silliest causes for their beliefs, people become more likely to actually adjust beliefs that they notice to be on shaky ground. If somebody asks other people for an opinion on whether their reasoning makes sense, feel free to answer, but do try to keep it non-confrontational.