The rider is our conscious reasoning that learns facts and formulates arguments. The elephant, is the other 99 percent of what goes on in our minds. It’s the automatic and unconscious processes like intuition, emotion and habit.
In terms of ethics education, he argues that there is no point in trying to change the rider unless you also change the elephant. You’ve got to make ethical behaviour automatic and habitual, and you can’t do that with a series of lectures.
See the video here (External link).
How can ethics education change the elephant and the path the elephant and rider are on?