Mental Immunity Framing
What Works to Build Mental Immunity - #5
The mental immunity framework encourages students to grapple with their susceptibility to bad ideas and false information.1 It employs the analogy of minds functioning like informational immune systems. Just as immune systems protect bodily integrity by identifying and neutralizing pathogens, the mind’s immune system safeguards cognitive integrity by protecting us from “mind bugs.” This analogy can galvanize interest in better thinking–because everyone benefits when we “debug” our minds!
Applications
Ask students if they think minds can be infected with “mind bugs.” If computers can be infected with bugs, can’t minds be, too? If so, how do we protect our minds? What would a healthy mental “immune system” look like? What would it do?
Ask students to reflect on a time that their mind’s immune system failed them (i.e. when they fell for a false claim).
Invite students to suggest ways to “build up” mental immunity. Invite them to discuss the 10 principles of mental immunity laid out here.2
Notes
When new information is presented to us, questions and doubts typically arise, especially if the new information doesn’t align with what we already know. In this way, questions and doubts function like antibodies and immune cells to check ideas before incorporating them into one’s understanding. Just like the immune system screens foreign materials and neutralizes threats like viruses, the mind does the same for ideas. And just as our bodily immune system can be compromised, leading us to get sick as a result of a pathogen overcoming our immune defenses, so too can our mental immune systems sometimes fail to detect and reject bad ideas. Given its foundations are laid upon many of the evidence-based concepts we cover in this series, we believe this analogy offers a pragmatic model for learners to reflect on.
Learn More
For a deeper understanding, read our Declaration on Mental Immunity.3
This post is part of our “What Works” series for educators and researchers.
We are open to incorporating feedback into these modules before we publish them on our website. Please comment on this post to provide suggestions. We’re particularly interested in additional applications, resources, and readings. All constructive feedback is welcomed. Thank you!
In other news...
A new podcast featuring Mental Immunity Project leaders
Andy and Melanie were both featured in the latest episode of
Free Forum with Terrence McNally
It’s a great episode, listen here.4