Notes from CBC Ideas episode: The Fool's Dilemma

• The episode and show notes



By Kitty Terwolbeck

• While we may note when others are not self-aware of their blunders, misconceptions, etc., it is difficult for us to realize when we are thinking or acting irrationally, poorly, etc.
• Clinically depressed people are more accurate in their self-assessment compared to "happy" people.  Typically people overestimate their abilities or control over a situation  
• There are two modes of thinking, (1) Unconscious (snap judgments, hunches) and (2) deliberate thinking.  The latter takes a lot of effort to do  
• Our access to the external world is subject to a layer of interpretation that we are not even aware of.  In the paper, "Wishful Seeing", there is an experiment where after a group of participants have been given a lot of salty pretzels to eat, they perceive a water bottle placed before them to be several inches closer than before the pretzels, despite the actual, exact same distance.  Also see "Epistemological Dualism"
• Generally people are overconfident but this confidence provides hopefulness and resiliency, and the ability to overcome setbacks
• Related to wanting to have a sense of control of a situation, people have an extreme aversion to uncertainty.  The episode describes that people will agonize while waiting for the results of a cancer test, and even when they are told that the results are conclusive, that they indeed have cancer, often people will have a sense of relief, "at least I know"
• People are drawn to confidence and the most successful pundits are the confident ones, not necessarily the ones that accurately forecasted.  For theoretical issues, as opposed to, e.g. what's the best family sedan to buy, people don't want complexity and nuances  
• Confirmation bias, group think, internet is house of mirrors/echo chamber?
• Cultural differences?  Canadian students will play with puzzle that they can solve during their spare time.  Japanese students will work on a puzzle they are unable to solve during their spare time, but once solved, they will set it aside.
• To overcome our cognitive blindness, we should challenge our own beliefs as much as we challenge competing beliefs, applying Socratic questioning on ourselves