Real Reason

Real Reason is a California nonprofit founded in 2006. Real Reason applies the tools of cognitive linguistics -- an academic field that uses language as data to understand how people reason and make decisions -- to help people think and act democratically, in service of the common good. We explore not just where people are right now, but where they are capable of going. Our work is designed to generate communication that activates innate capacities in the public that may be either underdeveloped or in a state of atrophy: flexibility in thinking, tolerance of ambiguity, understanding of interconnection, and a collaborative problem-solving orientation.