Radical honesty

Key takeaways

Radical honesty belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Radical honesty to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Radical honesty from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Radical honesty is the practice of complete honesty without telling even white lies. The phrase was trademarked in 1997 as a technique and self-improvement program based on the 1996 bestselling book Radical Honesty by Brad Blanton. While proponents of Radical Honesty present the practice as a moral imperative, Blanton's program argues against moralism and promote Radical Honesty as a means of reducing stress, deepening connections with others, and reducing reactivity.

Background

Brad Blanton W. Brad Blanton (born 1940) is an American psychotherapist and former politician who began the radical honesty movement. Based in Stanley, Virginia, Blanton ran as an independent candidate for Virginia's 7th congressional district in 2004 but lost to Republican Eric Cantor with around a quarter of the vote. He considered running again in 2006 but withdrew and endorsed Democrat James Nachman due to inadequate campaign funds. As a ten-year-old child growing up with an abusive and alcoholic stepfather, Blanton decided to "rescue people who were hurting and kill the mean people". However, he later turned to psychotherapy: "It's very hard to kill the mean people and take care of the helpless ones [...] The mean people are the helpless ones. So I decided that psychotherapy was the way." After training with Fritz Perls and Werner Erhard, Blanton worked as a struggling psychotherapist in Downtown Washington, D.C. He eventually came to the conclusion that his clients were suffering because they were lying to the people in their lives. According to Blanton, he organized group therapy sessions, where his clients admitted their lies to others; he encouraged them to do so in their everyday lives. He claimed that his clients said they were ultimately better because of it. Blanton eventually began hosting retreats and workshops to experiment with his techniques.

Radical Honesty Blanton self-published his book Radical Honesty in 1994 after being rejected by several publishers. At a Moth Mainstage event in 2009, radio producer and writer Starlee Kine related her experience with Radical Honesty, which she labelled a cult. Kine described a seminar where Blanton was verbally abusive and at one point urged her to sign a contract to obey him completely for the duration of the event.

In popular culture The character Eli Loker, played by Brendan Hines, from the 2009 Fox series Lie to Me, adheres to Radical Honesty during the first season. From the website bio of the character in the first season: "Eli Loker is Lightman's lead researcher, who is so uncomfortable with the human tendency to lie that he's decided to practice what he calls "radical honesty". He says everything on his mind at all times and often pays the price". In the Divergent series, the Candor faction is dedicated to practicing Radical Honesty. Writer A.J. Jacobs devotes a chapter in his book The Guinea Pig Diaries to his attempts to live according to the precepts of Radical Honesty. Author Brandon Mendelson is a practitioner of a modified form of Radical Honesty. In the last book of the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, a character named Frizz Mizuno invents a surgical brain procedure called "Radical Honesty" that renders him unable to lie. In fact, if he hears someone tell a lie when he himself knows the truth, he can't even simply not speak—he has to reveal the truth under any circumstances. Even at the possible cost of his own life and the lives of people he cares about, he still can't lie to save them, because his brain is wired to speak the truth. In episode 20, season 6 of Bones, The Pinocchio in the Planter, the victim, Ross Dickson, is part of a fictional group called "The Honesty Policy" that practices Radical Honesty. The episode explores radical honesty from the perspective of the victim being deliberately rude and belligerent, with ill effects potentially leading to his demise, and with a crass and alienating character who attends the same group. However, it also explores, through several character subplots, positive outcomes resulting from honesty inspired by encountering the concept of Radical Honesty. The phrase "Radical Honesty" is used throughout the episode. In episode 3, season 5 of Silicon Valley, "Chief Operating Officer", a character called Ben Burkhardt, played by Benjamin Koldyke, follows a leadership philosophy developed by Kim Scott called "Radical Candor", or as he calls it, "RadCan", which bears many of the hallmarks of a warped version of Radical Honesty. As an example, for comedic purposes, he is 'honest about lying' and withholding information from other characters when speaking with third parties.

Notes

References

Bibliography Blanton, Brad 1996, Radical Honesty: How to Transform Your Life by Telling the Truth, Dell; 7th Printing edition, ISBN 0-440-50754-5 Blanton, Brad 2000, Practicing Radical Honesty, SparrowHawk Publications, ISBN 0-9630921-9-7 Blanton, Brad 2001, Honest to God: A Change of Heart That Can Change the World, SparrowHawk Publications, ISBN 0-9706938-1-8 Blanton, Brad 2002, Radical Parenting: Seven Steps to a Functional Family in a Dysfunctional World, SparrowHawk Publications, ISBN 0-9706938-2-6 Blanton, Brad 2004, The Truthtellers, SparrowHawk Publications, ISBN 0-9706938-3-4 Blanton, Brad 2005, Radical Honesty, the New Revised Edition: How to Transform Your Life by Telling the Truth, SparrowHawk Publications; Revised edition, ISBN 0-9706938-4-2 Blanton, Brad 2006, Beyond Good and Evil: The Eternal Split-Second Sound–Light Being, SparrowHawk Publications, ISBN 0-9706938-5-0 Blanton, Brad 2011, The Korporate Kannibal Kookbook – The Empire Is Consuming Us, SparrowHawk Publications, ISBN 1-4507-4253-X

External links Center for Radical Honesty I Think You're Fat, an article in Esquire magazine on the subject of Radical Honesty, containing an interview with Blanton and a description of the writer's experiment in Radical Honesty. Brad Blanton's Radical Honesty Radical honesty at Less Wrong The Moth Presents Starlee Kine: Radical Honesty American Journalist Starlee Kine gives a humorous (and honest) account of her attendance at a Radical Honesty workshop. From a 2009 Moth Mainstage event.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Radical honesty

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Radical honesty claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Radical honesty before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Radical honesty ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Radical honesty

In research: Radical honesty appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Radical honesty in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Radical honesty is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Lying, Personal development, Truth, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Radical honesty outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Radical honesty in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Radical honesty means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Radical honesty out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Radical honesty in simple terms?

Radical honesty is the practice of complete honesty without telling even white lies. The phrase was trademarked in 1997 as a technique and self-improvement program based on the 1996 bestselling book Radical Honesty by Brad Blanton.

Why does Radical honesty matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Radical honesty?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Radical honesty.