What is a Fairmind?
A fairmind is a type of digital tool. It can be implemented different ways, but here are six defining characteristics:
A fairmind exists to help people make an informed and fair-minded decision on a topic that divides opinion.
A fairmind walks the user through a multi-step decision process. It helps the user fairly consider, choose, and prioritize arguments from opposing sides. Based on those choices and priorities, it lets the user make and optionally share a final decision on the topic.
A fairmind’s content is verified for accurate facts, defensible arguments, and fairness to opposing sides.
Every claim needs to be footnoted with an explanation for why it is defensible. In turn, the footnote needs to cite one or more sources, which themselves are assessed for credibility.
The user should not need to waste time on demonstrably false claims, bad-faith arguments, and other noise. If these are prominently part of the topic’s public discourse, they can be addressed in user-optional content like “You Might Ask” boxes, the ”But What About...” step, or in footnotes.
A fairmind’s content is presented with layered complexity. The user should be able to advance quickly through each step but, at any point, be able to go deeper to:
Substantiate a claim via footnotes and sources
Get further explanation about a concept or subtopic via an explainer
Address a question via a “You Might Ask” box, the “But What About...” step, or searching
A fairmind’s content is written from an “analyst point of view.” This means acting as a neutral analyst on behalf of the user, telling the user what they need to know to fairly evaluate the facts and arguments at hand. To be clear: It is not reporting who said what in a debate; rather, it is analyzing and distilling a debate for efficient, informed, and fair-minded decision-making.
A fairmind is always open to revision in light of new or better information. There should be ways to continuously accept and regularly evaluate input on potential improvements. The content should be versioned, so the history of changes is auditable in terms of who did what.
At Fairmind.org, we have implemented an example fairmind and an authoring tool for creating fairminds. We see these as seeds, showing the beginning of what’s possible.
We encourage others to implement fairmind tools, nonprofit or commercial. From diversity will come the best answers for how to realize the vision for fairminds.