People who have brain damage of certain kinds go off the rails in all kinds of unimaginable ways to those of us who are okay or normal. We want other people's brains to be editable, because then we could make them more like ours. And it doesn't work that way for two reasons. There are all these very very powerful impulses we have. It's not a bias. It's a guardrail, if anything, and better word. But just to think about what the world would be like if it actually responded to these kind of interventions is amazing.
Psychologist and writer Adam Mastroianni says our minds are like the keep of a castle protecting our deepest held values and beliefs from even the most skilled attacks. The only problem with this design for self-preservation is that it also can keep out wisdom that might be both useful and true. Mastroianni's summary of the problem is "you can't reach the brain through the ears." Listen as Mastroianni talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about the implication of this view of mind for teaching, learning, and our daily interactions with the people around us.