The Semantic Disagreement Debate

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People are generally expecting that whatever concept they have in mind, the other person will share. Psychologist Celeste Kidd has a new paper which details her research into just how misaligned we are. There's a nearly 90% chance that the last time you discussed penguins with another person, you weren't really discussing the same idea.

Is a hotdog a sandwich?

Well, that depends on your definition of a sandwich (and a hotdog), and according to the most recent research in cognitive science, the odds that your concept of a sandwich is the same as another person's concept are shockingly low.

In this episode we explore how understanding why that question became a world-spanning argument in the mid 2010s helps us understand some of the world-spanning arguments vexing us today.

Our guest is psychologist Celeste Kidd who studies how we acquire and conceptualize information, form beliefs around those concepts, and, in general, make sense of the torrent of information blasting our brains each and every second. Her most recent paper examines how conceptual misalignment can lead to semantic disagreements, which can lead us to talk past each other (and get into arguments about things like whether hotdogs are sandwiches).

• Celeste Kidd's Website: https://www.kiddlab.com

• Celeste Kidd's Twitter: https://twitter.com/celestekidd

• How Minds Change: www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome

• David McRaney’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidmcraney

• YANSS Twitter: https://twitter.com/notsmartblog

• Show Notes: www.youarenotsosmart.com

• Newsletter: https://davidmcraney.substack.com

• Latent Diversity in Human Concepts: https://tinyurl.com/25544m3v