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Changing Minds

Changing Minds . Jonathan Carr-West Deputy Programme Director, RSA. So the whole question thus comes down to this: can the human mind master what the human mind has made? Paul Valery The significant problems we face can not be solved

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Changing Minds

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  1. Changing Minds Jonathan Carr-West Deputy Programme Director, RSA

  2. So the whole question thus comes down to this: can the human mind master what the human mind has made? Paul Valery The significant problems we face can not be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. Albert Einstein

  3. Core hypothesis Major social change occurs when profound challenges are matched by powerful new solutions Technological, economic and social progress has created complex, unpredictable challenges Emerging knowledge about how we think may help us to respond to these challenges

  4. How? Through the application of insights from neuroscience, behavioural economics, social psychology etc. to concrete public policy challenges New ways of thinking about ourselves and our relationship to the world allow the emergence of new ideas

  5. What have we learnt? • More robust theories about how our minds evolved and for what function • Better understanding of the physical processes in the brain that underpin mental operations • Better understanding of the idiosyncrasies of human cognitive processes and more sophisticated predictive accounts of why people and societies act as they do • Crucial new discoveries about the plasticity of the brain and its relationship to external environments

  6. What have we learnt? • More robust theories about how our minds evolved and for what function. • Evolutionary psychology • Modular theory of mind “the mind is a system of organs of computation designed by natural selection to solve the problems faced by our evolutionary ancestors in their foraging way of life” (Pinker)

  7. What have we learnt? • Better understanding of the physical processes in the brain that underpin mental operations

  8. What have we learnt? • Better understanding of the idiosyncrasies of human cognitive processes and more sophisticated predictive accounts of why people and societies act as they do • Prospect theory (Kahneman) • Post rationalising happiness (Gilbert) • Psychology of persuasion (Cialdini) • Social ‘physics’ (Schelling) • Language ‘framing’ the physical world (Pinker)

  9. What have we learnt? • Crucial new discoveries about the plasticity of the brain and its relationship to external environments • Flynn effect • neurogenesis

  10. What does this all add up to? • Emphasis on process as well as content of thought • Recognition that conscious mind is only part of the picture • Other factors play a role in determining our cognitive capacity and the content of our thought

  11. Physical organism Body/brain System Environmental Cultural Social Mind Conscious/Unconscious Aspects of the self Natural sciences Social sciences Philosophy Psychology

  12. Why does this matter? • Understanding mechanisms allows us to plan better interventions : • public health in C19th • athletics training • health to fitness

  13. Societies do not always survive Unless they find new ways to think about themselves and their relation to the world

  14. Imagine if… • Our responses to contemporary challenges were informed by the best scientific knowledge about how we think and behave? • Ageing population • Inequality • Learning • Well being

  15. Imagine if… • And of course there may be implications for business: • Employee performance • Learning • Organisational structure • Management • Workspace

  16. Imagine if… • New ways of thinking about ourselves enabled decisive shifts in how we think about: • Social solidarity • Collective agency • Relationship to natural world • A new enlightenment?

  17. What is the RSA doing? • Building a public debate • Lectures • Articles • Online discussion

  18. What is the RSA doing? • Building a public debate • Analysing public policy implications • Workshops with scientists and policy makers

  19. What is the RSA doing? • Building a public debate • Analysing public policy implications • Cross disciplinary work to develop new ways of thinking about thinking • Books • Articles • New research agenda

  20. What is the RSA doing? • Building a public debate • Analysing public policy implications • Cross disciplinary work to develop new ways of thinking about thinking

  21. When? • Scoping pamphlet: August 08 • Keynote lectures: Sept – Dec 08 • Public Policy workshops: Jan – March 09 • Additional research & development: March – Sept 09

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