The Challenger, the Challenger Explosion

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A psychologist asked his students to write down what they experienced at the moment of the shuttle explosion. Two and a half years later, he interviewed them again to see how their memories stayed the same or morphed over time. What stumped me was that there was a note from one person that indicated situation A and then two and a half year later, he stated B. "It just made no sense," she says.

Neurologist and author Robert Burton talks about his book, On Being Certain, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Burton explores our need for certainty and the challenge of being skeptical about what our brain tells us must be true. Where does what Burton calls "the feeling of knowing" come from? Why can memory lead us astray? Burton claims that our reaction to events emerges from competition among different parts of the brain operating below our level of awareness. The conversation includes a discussion of the experience of transcendence and the different ways humans come to that experience.