Sharing what I have learned from what I have read: A blog by Joe Abittan
For much of our waking life we operate on System 1, or we at least allow System 1 to be in control of many of our actions, thoughts, and reactions to the world around us. We don't normally have to think very hard about our commute to work, we can practically walk through the house … Continue reading A Capacity for Surprise
In my last few posts I have written about Johann Hari's research into Harry Anslinger, the nation's first Commissioner for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, and what Hari learned about Anslinger and the start of the nation's war on drugs. Anslinger held deeply racist views which he channeled into propaganda and drug policy in the … Continue reading A Condescending Impulse
I will be honest with this one. I think President Donald Trump is a despicable human being, a lazy thinker, and too incompetent (not to mention unaware of his incompetence) to serve as President of the United States. As a result of my disliking of the President, I feel that I cannot trust anything he … Continue reading Immediate Evaluations
Recently I have been thinking a lot about the way we think. To each of us, it feels as though our thinking and our thought process is logical, that our assumptions about the world are sound and built on good evidence, and that we might have a few complex technical facts wrong, but our judgments … Continue reading Motivated Reasoning – Arguments to Continue Believing As We Already Do
Our justice system in the United States is not the greatest system that we have developed. In recent years a lot of attention has been paid to disparities in sentencing and ways in which the system doesn't seem to operate fairly. For instance possession of the same amount crack cocaine and powder cocaine carried different … Continue reading Judicial Sentencing and Daylight Saving Time
Whether we want to admit it or not, we all make cognitive errors that result in biases, incorrect assessments, and bad decisions. Daniel Pink examines the timing of our errors and biases in his book When: The Scientific Secrets to Perfect Timing. It is one thing to simply say that biases exist, and another to … Continue reading Racial Bias Manifests When We Are Tired
In the United States there is a lot of wealth and a lot resources that are directed toward charity. One problem, however, is that the people who are the most in need of charity are generally in developing countries and economies on the other side of the globe. Those counties and individuals, where our donations … Continue reading Donating to Faces
I was reading an political science paper in an academic journal last night and came across a sentence that really stood out to me. The paper focused on the staffers who work for members of congress and whether they held accurate views of the constituents represented by the member of congress that they worked for. … Continue reading Egocentric Bias
In my life I want to remain open to the world around me, try new things, and stretch myself in areas where I recognize I don't have much experience. In order to successfully live an open and exploratory life, I will have to accept that I am not as great as my ego wants me … Continue reading Aware of Your Feelings of Superiority
Our brains are pretty impressive pattern recognition machines. We take in a lot of information about the world around us, remember stories, pull information together to form new thoughts and insights, move through the world based on the information we take in, and we are able to predict the results of actions before they have … Continue reading Attribution Bias