If you haven’t noticed, America is polarizing into two main factions. The trigger for this division is generally seen as being the election of Donald Trump in 2016, though, to me, this ‘us vs. them’ culture war started decades earlier. This “us and them” thinking is, of course, also called in-group favoritism and out-group bias. It is the result, apparently, of our natural tribalism, meaning we tend to quickly form distinct groups or “tribes” in various areas of life (politics, religion). Problems can arise as the polarization between in/out-groups increase. Here is an excellent 12 minute video on the psychology…
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Continuing our overview of cognitive biases we have the well known confirmation bias. This is one that definitely is important to know as everyone suffers from this bias. It can, like other biases, lead to and reinforce other biases. Coupled with the fact that we are all, to some degree, ignorant of our own biases (Bias Blind Spot) this can create what I call stagnant, intellectual tide pools. Confirmation bias is the bias we all have to seek information to confirm what we already believe. We gather and interpret information in a way that fits into what we already believe…
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Continuing with my series of overviews of cognitive biases, we have “cognitive dissonance” and “belief perseverance”. The story of how cognitive dissonance and belief perseverance were first recognized or described in Social Psychology is an interesting story to me. It involves the sociological study of a 1950s UFO cult by the psychologists Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schachter . This was published in their book, When Prophecy Fails in 1956. I originally read this book in the ’90s. The group’s leader claimed to be in contact with extraterrestrials (through automatic writing if I remember right) and they told her the earth would be…
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My second blog post recommended using the Principle of Charity when dealing with people and avoiding the Fundamental attribution error (subject of third post). Here’s a very basic look at the Principle of Charity applied to people’s statements and actions in everyday life. An article for a more complete look at the principle as applied to arguments by others:
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The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a somewhat well known cognitive bias. It is the tendency of most people to overestimate their knowledge of a subject and their competency in the field and in their skills. The less a person knows about a topic the more they tend to think they know about it or are good at it. To some extent, the reverse is true (to a point). The more you know, the more you know you don’t know about a subject and the less you think of your competency. After a while, though, your confidence in your knowledge picks up…
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