A fair-minded person tries to see a situation from more than one side before they decide who is right. They listen. They do not jump to “my side is good, your side is bad.” The word names a kind of character, not a mood: you can be warm and still not fair-minded, and you can be strict and still be fair-minded. Teachers, judges, and people who run meetings like it, because it praises the habit of taking other people’s views seriously. People also reach for it when they want to sound calm in an argument: “Let’s be fair-minded about this.” It is a compliment, and it is a little careful — more a word you write, or say when you are being serious, than a word friends throw around. Though actually, being fair-minded does not mean you never take a side, and it does not mean you say yes to everyone. It means you did the looking first. It is also not the same as being “nice.” A nice person may want you to feel good; a fair-minded person wants the decision to be just, even if someone leaves unhappy.