Haidt marshals decades of research to show that when we make judgments about our world, we use both our reasoning mind and our intuitive mind. In his analogy, the intuitive mind is like a big, strong elephant, and the reasoning mind is like its tiny human rider. The rider may have a clear idea of where he wants to go, just as you might have a heap of logical evidence for where you ought to lean in any given judgment. But at the end of the day, you’re going to go where your elephant wants to go because, well, it’s an elephant.
