Are You Getting a Second Opinion?

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Bob Greene: I've become increasingly interested in what he would call other forms of knowledge. He says when evidence is translated into a number, because it sounds more scientific, people are more likely to believe it. Greene: We're somewhat either culturally or physically hardwired to find those kind of that kind of evidence persuasive. But there's just many, many other ways to come to decisions besides running or aggression and parsing the numbers.

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.