Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of Self-Improvement

Free Will and the War Against Our Minds - Are We Becoming NPCs?

Dec 6, 2024

Explore the intriguing concept of non-player characters in human behavior and how societal pressures shape our thinking. From conformists to contrarians, discover how mindsets can become automated by external influences. The discussion delves into the impact of misinformation, especially regarding vaccine discourse, and the dangers of overly emotional attachment to leaders. Learn strategies for cultivating critical thinking and individual autonomy in a polarized world, helping you break free from the scripts we often unthinkingly follow.

45:31

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Quick takeaways

The podcast highlights how our cognitive shortcuts, built through evolution, can lead to simplistic reasoning and automated thought patterns in response to modern media.

Listeners are encouraged to understand the five types of Non-Player Characters in society to cultivate independent thinking and maintain autonomy over their beliefs.

Deep dives

The Predictability of Modern Reactions

Modern culture online is increasingly predictable, with similar groups reacting in identical ways to issues. This phenomenon has led to the critique that it is becoming more challenging to differentiate between human responses and those generated by bots. Writer Gawinder compares this to non-player characters (NPCs) in video games—individuals who seem to operate on a script and lack genuine autonomy. This raises important reflections about how media consumption shapes our own responses, sometimes leading us to subconsciously adopt these robotic behaviors.

Intro

6min

The Dynamics of Thinking: Conformity and Contrarianism

15min

Navigating the Vaccine Discourse and Misinformation

5min

The Dangers of Automated Thinking in Discipleship

17min

Strategic Thinking and the Importance of Focus

3min

The Psychology of the 5 Types of Non-Player Characters - How to Fix Them and Be a Main Character Thinker.

The same story plays out online every day. The same people are getting outraged about the same things again and again. Like Clockwork.

The human brain is highly optimised to rely on heuristics and simplistic decisions. Modern media hijacks this system to control our beliefs and emotions based on the agenda of other people.

This episode helps listeners build autonomy over their beliefs and emotions by learning the different types of Non-Player-Character:

The Conformist NPC - Believes the consensus politically correct ideas
The Contrarian NPC - Believes the opposite of the consensus and seeks conspiracy
The Disciple NPC - Believes their preferred leader
The Tribalist NPC - Follows the tribe and us vs them mentality
The Averager NPC - Seeks the middle ground without understanding the merits of an argument.

Learn the psychology of the processes behind each NPC type and how different types of critical thinking systems or defence systems get turned on and off based simply on who delivers the message.

Building your own worldview is one of the most important things you can do in an increasingly confusing and polarised world.

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Growth Mindset Psychology:

Sam Webster explores the psychology of happiness, satisfaction, purpose, and growth through the lens of self-improvement.

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Chapters:

00:00 Psychology of Modern Culture and Predictability of Crowds

01:24 The Brain's Information Processing Shortcuts

03:09 Gurwinder on NPC's

04:48 System One and System Two Thinking

07:08 The Influence of Social Media and Algorithms

07:56 #1 The Conformist NPC

14:38 #2 The Contrarian NPC

21:49 #3 The Disciple NPC

26:03 #4 The Tribalist NPC

30:29 #5 The Averager NPC

36:51 Strategic Cognitive Resource Allocation

38:12 Recap of NPC Types and Strategies

39:31 The Importance of Selective Deep Thinking

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