The Tenth Man Rule is a common sense tactic that states that whenever nine people agree that something is true, a tenth person should defend the opposite thesis (even if they do not agree with it) to be prepared for an unlikely event or thesis.

Details

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Of uncertain origin[1], it was popularized in the film World War Z (2013), based on the novel of the same name by Max Brooks. [2][3] In the film, it is claimed to be a practice used by the Israeli government. Although the Tenth Man Rule does not explicitly exist in the Israeli government, they do have a culture of analyzing unlikely theses, even having an office called the «devil's advocate» office where theses opposite to those accepted are analyzed.[4]

It can be a feasible common sense tactic to implement, to avoid the problems of groupthink, argumentative bias and other thinking errors.[5] The rule helps in better decision-making, accident prevention and the permanent search for true knowledge by questioning and contrasting it with opposing arguments. Although the specific rule is that after 9 people a tenth person must defend the opposite thesis, it is not necessary to have 10 people, but rather in advance in a group of 3 or 4 one of them must take the dissenting opinion,[6] and by extension one must question the knowledge that is considered true from time to time.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ U. Fridman (7 July 2015). "Red Team Mindset: The Original 12 Rules to Ensure Success".
  2. ^ IMDb. "World War Z (2013) Full Cast & Crew". IMDb.
  3. ^ "World War Z (2013) Movie Script". If nine of us look at the same information and arrive at the exact same conclusion, it's the duty of the tenth man to disagree.
  4. ^ Yosef Kuperwasser (2007). Lessons from Israel's Intelligence reforms (PDF).
  5. ^ Hugo Mercier. "Why Do Humans Reason? Arguments for an Argumentative Theory". SSRN 1698090. Archived from the original on 25 September 2014.
  6. ^ Patrick Allan (6 March 2015). "Plan More Effectively with the "Tenth Man Rule"".


Category:Military science Category:Strategy Category:Logic Category:Psychology Category:Thinking