We live in a world that requires us to navigate through a jungle of information on a daily basis.
The news we read, the content we see online and the people we interact with
all shape how we view the world.
This inevitably influences the choices that we make:
from the food we eat and the music we listen to,
to our attitudes towards the environment and the political candidates we vote for.
To make informed decisions, we must sift through a deluge of information to determine
which claims are supported by evidence and which are not.
Hard as it may be, we sometimes have to be willing to abandon some of our most deeply
rooted views when confronted with evidence to the contrary.
Being rational is not the same as being clever as a fox, though.
Even the smartest of us can act irrationally.
Sometimes we may simply not care what the evidence shows.
Or perhaps we want to win an argument instead of seeking the truth.
And some of us may be perfectly happy to base our decisions on what the majority of
our group thinks, without reviewing the evidence ourselves.
We, humans, are highly social animals after all:
we live in families, have circles of friends and are members of society.
So even though we are capable of thinking on our own, we do it much more often
in the company of others.
Taking all of this into account will allow us to move towards a society that is able
to reason collectively.
It can help to prevent polarization, build consensus and ultimately contribute to a healthy democracy.
So how can we cultivate a productive social discourse?
First of all, we need to understand that we aren’t born rational.
But the ability to think rationally is something that we develop surprisingly early,
by the age of seven according to some scientists.
When babies are about a year old, they start to communicate using gestures.
For instance, they can let their parents know where a missing object is.
But, of course, at this young age, children are not yet able to give reasons for their
beliefs and choices; for example, why they prefer one toy to another.
From the age of two, toddlers start to reason.
Once again, they can use gestures to communicate that they disagree.
If an adult mistakenly claims that a toy is on a shelf, a toddler can point to a box
to indicate that it is actually there instead.
Toddlers can also work together and coordinate their actions to reach a common goal –
although they may not always be entirely successful.
By the age of four, young children are able to weigh the relative merits of good versus poor reasons.
However, they are not yet able to convince others of their views.
By the time they are seven, children have reached the "age of reason”.
Although they still have a lot to learn, they have become familiar with the concept of giving
and asking for reasons.
They can provide a convincing explanation of what they believe, listen to reasons given
by somebody else and adjust their beliefs in response to persuasive arguments.
They can engage in discussions with each other and come up with a novel plan to achieve a common goal.
These discussions provide a good opportunity for parents and teachers to promote the development
of rational thinking: Working together, children learn to resolve arguments on their own
and come up with collaborative solutions.
Educational practices such as problem-based learning have been shown
to be especially useful for mastering this skill:
here, teachers give their class a problem to solve cooperatively.
A crucial point: once the task has been defined, the children should be left to get on with it themselves.
It may sound counterintuitive, but research has shown that children do not develop into
fully rational individuals by interacting only with adults.
This is because young children usually believe what grown-ups tell them.
If we want them to develop their reasoning skills to the fullest,
children should have opportunities to talk freely with their peers, discuss and evaluate various options,
and come up with collaborative solutions.
So if you want your children to become rational human beings who are capable of contributing to civil society,
encourage them to reason with one another from a young age.