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Cognitive Distortions - The Fragility of Human Thinking

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Cognitive Bias, Distortions & Logical Fallacies

Understanding Bias and the Brain. How quickly does the brain make judgements?

Understanding Bias and the Brain

10 of the Most Surprising Findings from Psychological Studies. Phenomenal field theory. Description[edit]

Phenomenal field theory

The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science. Illustration: Jonathon Rosen "A MAN WITH A CONVICTION is a hard man to change.

The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science

Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point. " So wrote the celebrated Stanford University psychologist Leon Festinger (PDF), in a passage that might have been referring to climate change denial—the persistent rejection, on the part of so many Americans today, of what we know about global warming and its human causes. The Persistence of Misperceptions. Why Do People Persist in Believing Things That Just Aren't True? Last month, Brendan Nyhan, a professor of political science at Dartmouth, published the results of a study that he and a team of pediatricians and political scientists had been working on for three years.

Why Do People Persist in Believing Things That Just Aren't True?

They had followed a group of almost two thousand parents, all of whom had at least one child under the age of seventeen, to test a simple relationship: Could various pro-vaccination campaigns change parental attitudes toward vaccines? Why People Believe Weird Things and 8 Ways to Change Their Minds. Some people believe all kinds of weird stuff including…

Why People Believe Weird Things and 8 Ways to Change Their Minds

Brendan Nyhan. What is Motivated Reasoning? How Does It Work? Dan Kahan Answers - The Intersection : The Intersection. I recently came across this post at Science & Religion Today, authored by Dan Kahan, who is the Elizabeth K.

What is Motivated Reasoning? How Does It Work? Dan Kahan Answers - The Intersection : The Intersection

Dollard Professor at Yale Law School. It clarifies so many important issues about motivated reasoning–what it is, what it isn’t–that I asked Kahan if I could repost it here, as I think it deserves very wide circulation. He said okay. The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. THE BASIC LAWS OF HUMAN STUPIDITY by Carlo M.

The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

Cipolla illustrations by James Donnelly The first basic law of human stupidity asserts without ambiguity that: Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation. At first, the statement sounds trivial, vague and horribly ungenerous. Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice. There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.

Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice

The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Average IQ in US and 80 other nations. The average IQ in the United States is usually set at 100.

Average IQ in US and 80 other nations

Groups within the US score different average IQ's, such as 115 for college grads or 85 for African-Americans. Similarly, average IQ varies from country to country, shown in the 2002 book IQ and the Wealth of Nations (sets Britain at 100): Sapience. Predictably Irrational - basic human motivations: Dan Ariely at TEDxMidwest. People Choose Electric Shocks Over Sitting Quietly for 15 Minutes and Thinking. In psychology experiment one man shocked himself 190 times rather than sit doing nothing.

People Choose Electric Shocks Over Sitting Quietly for 15 Minutes and Thinking

Most people would rather be doing something than sitting alone thinking, a new study finds, even if it involves self-administering a painful electric shock. Across 11 studies, psychologists at the University of Virginia and Harvard University had people sitting on their own in a featureless room for between 6 and 15 minutes (Wilson et al., 2014). Professor Timothy Wilson, who led the study, which is published in the journal Science, said: Scientists’ depressing new discovery about the brain. This article originally appeared on Alternet.

Yale law school professor Dan Kahan’s new research paper is called “Motivated Numeracy and Enlightened Self-Government,” but for me a better title is the headline on science writer Chris Mooney’s piece about it in Grist: “Science Confirms: Politics Wrecks Your Ability to Do Math.” Kahan conducted some ingenious experiments about the impact of political passion on people’s ability to think clearly. His conclusion, in Mooney’s words: partisanship “can even undermine our very basic reasoning skills…. [People] who are otherwise very good at math may totally flunk a problem that they would otherwise probably be able to solve, simply because giving the right answer goes against their political beliefs.” In other words, say goodnight to the dream that education, journalism, scientific evidence, media literacy or reason can provide the tools and information that people need in order to make good decisions.

Meditation makes people more rational decision-makers - Science Fair: Science and Space News. Updated 2011-04-20 12:23 PM Meditation, the ancient practice of mindfulness employed by all major religions, can actually reprogram the brain to be more rational and less emotional, researchers in Canada and the United States say.

The researchers looked at a classic psychological test called the Ultimatum Game. Developing as Rational Persons: Viewing Our Develo. Humans are capable of developing into rational beings. Thinking Accurately. The Chimp Paradox.