Data is never neutral. It is inextricably linked with theory and narrative, and confirmation bias pre-disposes us to agree or disagree with the narrative. Whether data are good, bad or ugly depends ultimately on your viewpoint.
Read More
Synthesizing thirty years of research, psychologist and science historian, Michael Shermer upends the traditional thinking about how humans form beliefs about the world. Simply put, beliefs come first and explanations for beliefs follow. The brain, Shermer argues, is a belief engine. Using sensory data that flow in through the senses, the brain naturally looks for and finds patterns – and then infuses those patterns with meaning, forming beliefs. Once beliefs are formed, our brains subconsciously seek out confirmatory evidence in support of those beliefs, which accelerates the process of reinforcing them, and round and round the process goes in a positive-feedback loop. — Amazon.co.uk
Read More
Stories are everywhere around us, and they have played a part in the cultural evolution of homo sapiens. But they have a dark side, and we should take care that we are masters of our stories and not enslaved by them.
Read More
In The Righteous Mind, psychologist Jonathan Haidt answers some of the most compelling questions about human relationships:
Why can it sometimes feel as though half the population is living in a different moral universe? Why do ideas such as ‘fairness’ and ‘freedom’ mean such different things to different people? Why is it so hard to see things from another viewpoint? Why do we come to blows over politics and religion? — Amazon.co.uk
Read More
Democrat and Republican. Meat Eaters and Vegetarians. Black and White. As human beings we sort ourselves into groups. And once we identify ourselves as a member of a particular group-say, Red Sox fans-we tend to feel more comfortable with others of our own kind, rather than, say, Yankees fans. Yet we all belong to multiple groups at the same time-one might be a woman, a mother, an American, a violinist. How do we decide which identities matter and why they matter so much? And what makes us willing to die for, or to kill for, a religion, a nation, or a race?
Read More