Jonathan Haidt - Elephant and Rider Metaphor

Elephant and Rider Metaphor

The observations of Social intuitionism, that intuitions come first and rationalization second, led to the Elephant and Rider Metaphor. The rider represents the conscious controlled processes and the elephant represents all of the automatic processes. The metaphor corresponds to Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow. This metaphor is used extensively in both The Happiness Hypothesis and The Righteous Mind.

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