# System 2 Attention

> System 2 Attention (S2A) first prompts the model to rewrite the input so that it keeps only the relevant, unbiased content, then answers using the rewritten context.

- Identifier: PTL-0040
- Category: Reasoning Elicitation
- Canonical URL: https://protologue.com/t/system-2-attention/
- Also known as: S2A
- Introduced: 2023

## Description

Weston and Sukhbaatar showed this reduces the influence of irrelevant or opinionated text in the prompt, improving factuality and reducing sycophancy toward opinions stated in the question.

## Related terms

- [Thread of Thought](https://protologue.com/t/thread-of-thought/)
- [Sycophancy](https://protologue.com/t/sycophancy/)
- [Rephrase and Respond](https://protologue.com/t/rephrase-and-respond/)

## Sources

- Weston & Sukhbaatar (2023). System 2 Attention (is something you might need too). https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.11829

## Cite this entry

Protologue. (2026). System 2 Attention. In Protologue: A Taxonomy of Prompting and LLM Techniques (v1.0.0, PTL-0040). https://protologue.com/t/system-2-attention/

License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)