# Professor Jonathan Haidt's metaphor of the rider and the elephant, from his book, "The Happiness Hypothesis," is referenced

1 Faculty News February 20, 2016 ![Forbes logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_030508.jpg?itok=SId6k3bx)>

Excerpt from [Forbes](http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2016/02/20/how-trump-and-sanders-trigger-our-brains-to-pay-attention/2/#480b0f33774a) -- "In The Happiness Hypothesis Dr. [Jonathan Haidt](http://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/jonathan-haidt) introduced the metaphor of the rider and the elephant. The NYU Stern School of Business professor said the human mind is divided into two parts that often conflict: the ‘rational’ or logical side of our brain (the rider) and the emotional side (the elephant). 'Like a rider on the back of an elephant, the conscious, reasoning part of the mind has only limited control of what the elephant does,' Haidt writes."

[Read more](http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2016/02/20/how-trump-and-sanders-trigger-our-brains-to-pay-attention/2/#480b0f33774a)