Michael Shermer on Cognitive Biases & How Thinking Goes Wrong (and Right!) 

Great tool set on fighting cognitive dissonance.

On online-lectures being "not as good as being in the classroom": I get that. But that way us unwashed get a chance to listen as well. Which I love. Thank you Covid and Michael!

I can't believe I just found this. This will help me with my apple basket. Sooo many people need to watch these lectures.

Thank you Dr. Shermer

This came at a good time. I've been acutley aware recently how reading an article regarding COVID-19 that I happen to disagree with still has an influential effect on my thoughts.

Great lecture. I wasted a year of my life in university, aiming to become a teacher. I had lessons in mind similar to this one.

On the supposedly cursed film "the exorcist" I remember Max Von Sydow calmly explaining that it was the director's job to make it seem more plausible that a demonic presence/force could be found in his work. He dismissed the claim but others were more susceptible to Friedkin's suggestive approach, there's a social reward when agreeing with your boss after all, people who have participated in such projects have received death threats from religious zealots adding to their already stressful work which might cause someone who already has a heart condition to collapse suddenly. For many years there was a Simpsons' curse related to the deaths of some people who made guest appearances in the show, but once they started embracing pop culture and more mainstream stars who happened to be younger the curse lifted. Or maybe it had to do with the quality of the plot, as soon as it began its decline (the) Death probably lost interest and like most fans from the start redirected its attention to other shows. I think the gorilla experiment is flawed in that it's easy to lose count if one pays attention to it, so one would be failing to do the task properly while there is no real danger in a guy wearing an ape suit. There'd be a delay in the response from someone who is asked to do some work compared to one who is just watching, but if a real gorilla were to walk suddenly (a real threat to the players) everyone would notice. As a younger person one gets more easily distracted and when we did that experiment it was with playing cards, I think the task was to count how many red ones there were and they showed for a very short time a black diamond king or something like that, then asked if we noticed the invalid card. I did, actually, but then again as one gets older things are done more automatically, one needs to filter noise out so things that are uncommon but harmless to the task at hand are ignored.

I'm in the comment thread of knowledgeable people. Thanks for sharing

Thanks Prof Shermer, great video! D.A., J.D., NYC

Great video. Keep doing what your doing.

To me "certainty" is the enemy. If you're not sure, don't say you're sure!

The book Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert talks about our natural way of making all things we have done in life a positive. Even people who have been left at the alter in marriage... it becomes the best thing that could have ever happened. Or someone who was in an accident and they have become paraplegic... it is a blessing and was the best thing that could have happened. Check it out. I found it fascinating how our brains make the worst things that have happened to us into some great and wonderful life altering event. Thank you for this message. I like that you say that it's not because we are dumb or gullible that we fall for these tricks, but that it's because we are wired for more natural events and not these falsified interactions.

Thinking with discernment for people challenged by thinking. Obviously probability decreases as criteria become more specific. If that isn't a given, one isn't thinking their way through a wet kleenex. Despite what what one thinks, biased or no, of the case around the 9/11 situation, to say that 2 seemingly independent events, planes and controlled demolition "cannot possibly be" causally related is absolutely absurd. I'm inclined to think this guy has never made a sandwich with more than bread on it. It does require a bit of planning, but with training one can attain the skills to formulate a multi layered and tasteful little meal with as many ingredients as space, time and creativity allow. It's knowing the high art, and sometimes science of orchestration. I've made many a great sandwich this way and with the skills learned I could probably push a detonate button at the same time I saw a plane impact a building! Magic, I know...I'm THAT good.

What platform was used to make this presentation?

I can make money out of backing horses(bookmakers will not accept bets of me) while people far smarter than me lose and this is insightful into their failures(among other factors), have a great day!!!!

Like only if you watched the whole Lecture.

Motivated Reasoning:- (to be precise), if the Human context of alignment with a coherent cohesion objectives in pulsed resonances of e-Pi-i interference positioning.., is applied to the meaning of Temporal Superposition-point Singularity Holography, then re-cognition of the philosophical statement of fact, ..that in some degree of density and intensity of QM-TIMESPACE In-form-ation "oneness" formulae, "it's always now forever" = WYSIWYG @.dt.., and there's a competitive debate equivalent to the comparison of methodology and probability applied to Disproof. Ie cognitive bias is typical, that's what the educational system is intended to produce, and "mathematically" because the zero-infinity difference distribution Interval of something nothing has singularity-perspective, the apparent distance of holographic non-alignment in physical Spacetime, the meaning of corresponding co-existing and cognitive resonance, is dominated by observable, measurable, physical space, difference distribution. (There's the natural expectation of Exclusion Principle and then there's the similar aspect problem of Uncertainty, because Unity-Singularity is the circumstantial conditions for non-existent quantum cloning. Ie the Universe is a single branching Multiverse objective, Eternity-now of time duration timing modulation) In terms of Quantum Chemistry, "we" are all together in the context of Actuality here-now-forever, a single objective organism, of diverse, unique individual branches, ..oneness of continuous creation connection in/of Temporal Principle.., putting it in Holographic Perspective.., which is why Science and Technology are refining of techniques chosen by precedent and empirical policy, more so than direct need.(?)

If a situation is not important, why pay too much attention?

Great lecture! The video abruptly ends during the beginning of the 'lip balm' clip. Anyone else have this issue?

Three Tim's in fifteen comments, what are the odds? It must be a sign, right? LOL. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Be well.

Ah guessed 53 countries!

39:00 "Signal Detection Problem" … So, do the 50% who "do not see" the gorilla, get a more accurate count (of the number of basketball passes by the white shirts) than the 50% who do see the gorilla ?

"There is no Nobel Prize in psychology but in economics there is" No, that's the "Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel" and not an official Nobel prize: "Peter Nobel (the great-grandnephew of Ludvig Nobel) accuses the awarding institution of misusing his family's name, and states that no member of the Nobel family has ever had the intention of establishing a prize in economics. He explained that 'Nobel despised people who cared more about profits than society's well-being', saying that 'There is nothing to indicate that he would have wanted such a prize' , and that the association with the Nobel prizes is 'a PR coup by economists to improve their reputation'."

One of the wildest things I've ever heard was 9/11 morning watching the plane hit the second building on tape, a very young girl can be heard saying: They're doing it on purpose.

"No evidence that GMOs cause harm." Would you like to debate me in that?

Given the attention span of the human race, you'll need to condense this to around three minutes for it to have any chance of helping. Not that I don't appreciate the effort.

The gorilla experiment was a bad one, the gorilla was completely black, and the idea was for the eye to be focused on ignoring the players wearing black. If the gorilla had been brown, or any other color we probably would have noticed it. The distraction effect is very real though, our senses our incredibly limited.

Would be great if I could hear anything you're saying, what a shame.