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Can We Disagree Better?

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Can We Disagree Better?

No Stupid Questions,

5 min read
3 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Learn research-backed strategies to make disagreements more productive – even when communicating with someone whose views clash with your own.

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Concrete Examples
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

How do you have a productive dialogue with someone whose views you reject or downright abhor? Mike Maughan and Angela Duckworth, co-hosts of the No Stupid Questions podcast, draw strategies from a variety of fields, including psychology and public policy, with the aim of helping you have more productive disagreements. Maughan and Duckworth look for opportunities for human connection while teaching you how to disarm angry people and create positive outcomes from heated debates.

Summary

Learn to disagree better through “adversarial collaborations.”

Today’s world is rife with bitter hatred and contempt, especially regarding politics. But how can humans discuss their differences in a constructive, rather than deleterious, way? In life, people are taught how to get along harmoniously, but that teaching rarely extends to how to disagree or engage in healthy conflict. 

The aim isn’t to eliminate conflict. That would be counterproductive. Instead, people must learn how to have civil, constructive “adversarial collaborations.” This term, popularized by psychologist Daniel Kahneman, describes a framework in which two people with opposing perspectives work together to resolve the matter under dispute. Both parties collaborate by designing a study or experiment that aims to further knowledge of the controversial topic. The parties set ground rules – say, agreeing in advance to let the data determine who is right. To benefit from an adversarial collaboration, both parties ultimately must admit where they were wrong and what they learned from the experience.

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About the Podcast

Research psychologist Angela Duckworth is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. She’s also the co-founder of Character Lab, a nonprofit that aims to help children thrive by advancing scientific insights. Mike Maughan, a tech and sports executive, co-founded the 5 for the Fight foundation, which raises funds for cancer research.

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