People Disagree on Whether Penguins are Heavy or Light

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Research suggests that people do not have the same subjective experience when thinking about penguins. Their concepts of penguins differ, even when controlling for context. While there are aspects of penguin concepts that people agree on, such as flightlessness, cuteness, and being birds, there is disagreement on the weight of penguins. Some believe penguins are heavy due to their wobbling and inability to fly, while others think they are light because of their bird bones. The variability in weight perception is attributed to a lack of experience in picking up penguins and can cause divisions among people, similar to contentious topics like whether hot dogs are sandwiches.

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