You Are Not So Smart 103 - Desirability Bias
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Jun 6, 2017 In this engaging discussion, Ben Tappan, a PhD candidate at Royal Holloway University of London, dives deep into the intriguing world of cognitive biases. He highlights how confirmation bias easily intertwines with the newly identified desirability bias, leading us to favor evidence that aligns with our future desires. By examining historical examples and the 2016 U.S. election, Ben illustrates how our emotional investments can cloud judgment, revealing the powerful ways these biases shape our decisions and perceptions.
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Pattern Recognition Drives Belief
- Human brains are wired to seek patterns and make sense of noisy input through pattern recognition.
- This pattern drive explains both our achievements and our susceptibility to false beliefs.
Why Confirmation Bias Exists
- Confirmation bias makes us search for evidence that supports what we already think.
- It's adaptive: finding expected patterns quickly was often safer and more useful for ancestors.
Perceptual Pop-Out Demo
- David plays a noisy audio that becomes intelligible after listeners learn the sentence.
- This demonstrates perceptual pop-out: once you expect a pattern, you can't un-hear it.