Contrarian Decorator¶

Generates responses that deliberately challenge conventional wisdom or mainstream perspectives. This decorator encourages critical thinking by presenting counterarguments, alternative interpretations, or challenging established positions on a topic.

Category: Reasoning

Parameters¶

Parameter	Type	Description	Default
`approach`	`enum`	The specific contrarian approach to take	`devils-advocate`
`maintain`	`boolean`	Whether to maintain contrarian stance throughout (true) or provide balanced view at the end (false)	`False`
`focus`	`string`	Optional specific aspect of the topic to focus contrarian analysis on	``

Approach Options¶

outsider: Adopt the perspective of someone completely outside the field or discipline, questioning fundamental assumptions that insiders might take for granted.
skeptic: Take a deeply skeptical stance that questions the evidence, methodology, and logical foundations behind established views.
devils-advocate: Present the strongest possible counterarguments to what would normally be considered the most reasonable position.

Examples¶

Basic devil's advocate approach with balanced conclusion¶

+++Contrarian
Why is renewable energy considered the future of power generation?

Challenges conventional thinking about renewable energy's dominance, presenting counterarguments and limitations, followed by a balanced perspective

Maintained skeptical contrarian stance focused on a specific aspect¶

+++Contrarian(approach=skeptic, maintain=true, focus=methodology)
Discuss the reliability of climate models in predicting future global temperatures.

Provides a consistently skeptical analysis of climate model methodologies, questioning assumptions, limitations, and historical accuracy throughout the response

Model-Specific Implementations¶

gpt-4-turbo¶

Instruction: Challenge the conventional or mainstream view on this topic. Take the role of a {approach} who questions accepted wisdom. Focus particularly on {focus}. Present strong counterarguments and alternative interpretations. {maintain}

Notes: This model sometimes needs more explicit instruction to maintain a truly challenging stance rather than reverting to conventional views

Implementation Guidance¶

Basic devil's advocate with balanced conclusion on renewable energy¶

Original Prompt:

Why is renewable energy considered the future of power generation?

Transformed Prompt:

Please generate a response that deliberately challenges conventional wisdom or mainstream perspectives on this topic to encourage critical thinking. Present the strongest possible counterarguments to what would normally be considered the most reasonable position. After thoroughly presenting the contrarian perspective, conclude with a brief balanced view that acknowledges the merits of both conventional and contrarian viewpoints.

Why is renewable energy considered the future of power generation?

Maintained skeptical stance focused on methodology of climate models¶

Original Prompt:

Discuss the reliability of climate models in predicting future global temperatures.

Transformed Prompt:

Please generate a response that deliberately challenges conventional wisdom or mainstream perspectives on this topic to encourage critical thinking. Take a deeply skeptical stance that questions the evidence, methodology, and logical foundations behind established views. Maintain the contrarian perspective consistently throughout the entire response without offering a conventional perspective. Focus your contrarian analysis specifically on the methodology aspect of the topic rather than addressing all dimensions.

Discuss the reliability of climate models in predicting future global temperatures.

Transformation Details¶

Base Instruction: Please generate a response that deliberately challenges conventional wisdom or mainstream perspectives on this topic to encourage critical thinking.

Placement: prepend

Composition Behavior: accumulate

Parameter Effects:

approach:
When set to outsider: Adopt the perspective of someone completely outside the field or discipline, questioning fundamental assumptions that insiders might take for granted.
When set to skeptic: Take a deeply skeptical stance that questions the evidence, methodology, and logical foundations behind established views.
When set to devils-advocate: Present the strongest possible counterarguments to what would normally be considered the most reasonable position.
maintain:
When set to true: Maintain the contrarian perspective consistently throughout the entire response without offering a conventional perspective.
When set to false: After thoroughly presenting the contrarian perspective, conclude with a brief balanced view that acknowledges the merits of both conventional and contrarian viewpoints.
focus:
Format: Focus your contrarian analysis specifically on the {value} aspect of the topic rather than addressing all dimensions.

Compatibility¶

Requires: None
Conflicts: None
Compatible Models: gpt-4o, gpt-4-turbo
Standard Version: 1.0.0 - 2.0.0

Balanced: Conflicts with Contrarian Contrarian with maintain=true directly conflicts with Balanced's aim for equal perspective representation
Debate: Enhances Contrarian Debate can work well with Contrarian to present structured arguments for both conventional and contrarian views
StepByStep: Enhances Contrarian StepByStep can help structure the contrarian reasoning in a clear, logical progression