and another thing ...

'We're blind to our blindness. We have very little idea of how little we know. We're not designed to' →

A study was done after there were terror incidents in Europe. It asked people how much they would be willing to pay for an insurance policy that covered them against death, for any reason, during a trip abroad. Another group of people were asked how much they would pay for a policy that covered them for death in a terrorist incident during the trip. People paid substantially more for the second than for the first, which is absurd. But the reason is that we’re more afraid when we think of dying in a terrorist incident, than we are when we think simply of dying. You’re asked how much you’re willing to pay, and you answer something much simpler, which is: “How afraid am I?”

Some students were asked two questions: “How happy are you?” and “How many dates did you go on last month?” If you ask the questions in that order, the answers are completely uncorrelated. But if you reverse the order, the correlation is very high. When you ask people how many dates they had last month, they have an emotional reaction: if they went on dates, then they’re happier than if they went on none. So if you then ask them how happy they are, that emotional reaction is going on already, and they use it as a substitute for the answer to the question.

On the most elementary level, what we feel is a story. System one generates interpretations, which are like stories. They tend to be as coherent as possible, and they tend to suppress alternatives, so that our interpretation of the world is simpler than the world really is. And that breeds overconfidence.

(Source: azspot)

blog comments powered by Disqus

1. therewillbemike liked this
2. a1ysonwonderland liked this
3. metamorphoseandbodhi reblogged this from azspot and added:

   Click the link to read the full article.

4. blairsucher reblogged this from boundforthesunrise
5. sonnyjohl liked this
6. paulosthegreek liked this
7. silas216 liked this
8. silas216 reblogged this from azspot
9. incognito-jewels liked this
10. knowledgesponge liked this
11. do-over liked this
12. dielaughing liked this
13. froggeek liked this
14. xisforxmen liked this
15. redcloud reblogged this from azspot
16. imnothip liked this
17. thisisjamesj liked this
18. outlawjosie liked this
19. gruesomecraft liked this
20. causeicraft liked this
21. metamorphoseandbodhi liked this
22. chou-he liked this
23. kickerofelves liked this
24. deeperdream liked this
25. redcloud liked this
26. subatomicdoc liked this
27. silima-alastegiel reblogged this from azspot
28. hannahkessel liked this
29. boundforthesunrise reblogged this from onehundreddollars
30. sendmelies liked this
31. elusivemusings liked this
32. aladdin liked this
33. blackwithink liked this
34. tolivelovelearn liked this
35. christopher-isherwood reblogged this from onehundreddollars
36. onehundreddollars reblogged this from azspot
37. onehundreddollars liked this
38. phroyd liked this
39. phroyd reblogged this from azspot
40. newsandtrade reblogged this from azspot
41. bespangled liked this
42. thekidwiththatface liked this
43. azspot posted this