123 - Active Information Avoidance (rebroadcast)

123 - Active Information Avoidance (rebroadcast)

Little did the champions of the Enlightenment know that once we had access to all the facts…well, reason and rationality wouldn’t just immediately wash across the land in a giant wave of enlightenment thinking. While that may be happening in some ways, the new media ecosystem has also unshackled some of our deepest psychological tendencies, things that enlightenment thinkers didn’t know about, weren’t worried about, or couldn’t have predicted. Many of which we’ve discussed in previous episodes like confirmation bias, selective skepticism, filter bubbles and so on. These things have always been with us, but modern technology has provided them with the perfect environment to flourish.

In this episode, we explore another such invasive psychological species called active information avoidance, the act of keeping our senses away from information that might be useful, that we know is out there, that would cost us nothing to obtain, but that we’d still rather not learn. From choosing not to open open bills, visit the doctor, check your bank account, or read the nutrition information on the back of that box of Girl Scout Cookies, we each choose to remain ignorant when we’d rather not feel the anguish of illumination, but that same tendency can also cause great harm both to individuals and whole cultures when it spreads through politics, science, markets, and medicine. In this show, you’ll learn how.

Patreon: http://patreon.com/youarenotsosmart


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Avsnitt(332)

143 - How to Talk to People About Things

143 - How to Talk to People About Things

In this episode, we sit down with negotiation expert Misha Glouberman who explains how to talk to people about things -- that is, how to avoid the pitfalls associated with debate when two or more peop...

17 Dec 20181h 42min

142 - Debate (rebroadcast)

142 - Debate (rebroadcast)

In late 2014 and early 2015, the city of Starkville, Mississippi, passed an anti-discrimination measure that lead to a series of public debates about an issue that people there had never discussed ope...

3 Dec 201854min

141 - Not A Scientist

141 - Not A Scientist

Our guest in this episode of the You Are Not So Smart Podcast is Dave Levitan, a science journalist with a new book titled: Not a Scientist: how politicians mistake, misrepresent, and utterly mangle s...

19 Nov 201843min

140 - Machine Bias (rebroadcast)

140 - Machine Bias (rebroadcast)

We've transferred our biases to artificial intelligence, and now those machine minds are creating the futures they predict. But there's a way to stop it.In this episode we explore how machine learning...

5 Nov 201853min

139 - The Friendship Cure

139 - The Friendship Cure

On this episode, we welcome journalist Kate Leaver to talk about her new book The Friendship Cure in which she explores the crippling, damaging, life-threatening impact of loneliness and the severe me...

21 Okt 20181h 15min

138 - Evil

138 - Evil

In this episode, we sit down with psychologist Julia Shaw, an expert in memory and criminal psychology, to discuss her new book - Evil. In the book, she makes a case for something she calls "evil empa...

8 Okt 201853min

137 - Narrative Persuasion (rebroadcast)

137 - Narrative Persuasion (rebroadcast)

One of the most effective ways to change people’s minds is to put your argument into a narrative format, a story, but not just any story. The most persuasive narratives are those that transport us. On...

24 Sep 201838min

136 - Prevalence Induced Concept Change

136 - Prevalence Induced Concept Change

In this episode we explore prevalence induced concept change. In a nutshell, when we set out to change the world by reducing examples of something we have deemed problematic, and we succeed, a host of...

10 Sep 201832min

Populärt inom Utbildning

historiepodden-se
rss-bara-en-till-om-missbruk-medberoende-2
det-skaver
alska-oss
harrisons-dramatiska-historia
sektledare
nu-blir-det-historia
rss-viktmedicinpodden
johannes-hansen-podcast
roda-vita-rosen
allt-du-velat-veta
i-vantan-pa-katastrofen
rss-sjalsligt-avkladd
rss-max-tant-med-max-villman
rss-basta-livet
rss-om-vi-ska-vara-arliga
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet
rss-relationsrevolutionen
not-fanny-anymore
sa-in-i-sjalen