Ongekend
Ongekend
Maarten van Doorn
Why confirmation bias and polarization can be rational (Kevin Dorst)
56 minutes Posted Mar 9, 2022 at 7:41 pm.
You just believe that because...: people from different environments with different upbringings predictably develop different political beliefs7:30 There's something problematic about the fact that you could've believe differently than you do now so easily (if I would have been born 100km to the north-east I probably would believe in God right now)12:00 Why the fact that your beliefs will predictably move in a certain direction is often a sign you're being irrational16:00 How ambigious evidence explains polarization26:00 Why confirmation bias is rational30:00 What really drives confirmation bias38:00 Is it rational to be more critical of uncongenial evidence?44:00 Recent studies (e.g. Anglin 2019) show polarization and belief perseverance to be rarer than previously thought48:00 Standard normative models of rational belief and action are wrong about how rational people would think and act Shownotes
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#15. Kevin Dorst has amazing theories on the rationality of human thinking.Timeline03:30 - You just believe that because...: people from different environments with different upbringings predictably develop different political beliefs7:30 There's something problematic about the fact that you could've believe differently than you do now so easily (if I would have been born 100km to the north-east I probably would believe in God right now)12:00 Why the fact that your beliefs will predictably move in a certain direction is often a sign you're being irrational16:00 How ambigious evidence explains polarization26:00 Why confirmation bias is rational30:00 What really drives confirmation bias38:00 Is it rational to be more critical of uncongenial evidence?44:00 Recent studies (e.g. Anglin 2019) show polarization and belief perseverance to be rarer than previously thought48:00 Standard normative models of rational belief and action are wrong about how rational people would think and act Shownotes
Kevin Dorst: website, twitter
Maarten van Doorn: RU page, website, substack, twitter
Kevin's blog series on rational polarization.
Here's his 2021 academic paper.
Dorst (2020) - Confirmation Bias Is Rational
Anglin, S. M. (2019). Do beliefs yield to evidence? Examining belief perseverance vs. Change in response to congruent empirical findings. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 82, 176–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.02.004
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