Hello everyone and welcome back. I’m your host Kevin browne and in this episode, I want to talk about being wrong. It’s not something anyone likes and it’s probably something you avoid. Actually, if researchers are right about this, you probably think you don’t have this problem. As the Ian Leslie quote, I referenced in the last episode stated if you’re like most people you go around thinking you know everything. Don’t feel too bad about this because everyone feels this way. You might say it’s our natural feeling about our opinions and beliefs. And, as you can probably guess, I’m going to show that it’s wrong.
But, let me start by asking the question that Kathryn Schulz asks in her TED talk. Schulz describes herself as a “wrongologist” and has written an interesting book on the subject titled Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error. In her TED talk she addresses a small group on stage with her by asking them: How does it feel, emotionally, to be wrong? She gets some fairly predictable answers: dreadful. Embarrassing. You probably feel the same way. But, here’s the payoff. Those are not answers to the question How does it feel to be wrong? Those are answers to the question How does it feel to realize you’re wrong? What does it feel like to be wrong? It doesn’t feel like anything. Or to put it better, it feels just like being right. This is what’s so tricky about being wrong and doing something about it. It’s not easy to distinguish being right from being wrong by reflecting on your own feelings. Like you, I have a lot of beliefs about a lot of different things. Just like you, I’m not infallible. That means that you and I are currently holding beliefs that are right. We are also holding beliefs that are wrong. We have to be. there are so many things we all think about and form opinions and beliefs about. And, they can’t all be accurate! But, they all feel accurate. They all feel the same. As Schulz puts it, “this internal sense of rightness that we all experience so often is not a reliable guide to what is actually going on in the external world.” For many people, this is a major shock. Everything about how we perceive the world around us and what we believe feels accurate. But, it isn’t. It can’t be unless we are infallible which none of us are. So what can we do? Well, unfortunately, the most common response to this problem is denial. It’s easy to deny that there is any problem at all. My beliefs are right because I’ve researched them and thought about them and come to the conclusion that they are all well-founded. Of course, no one else does this. But, I do. This is what psychologists call the fundamental attribution bias. We tend to think that we’ve arrived at our beliefs through a process of reason and reflection on the evidence. Others don’t do this, they just rely on emotion and poor thinking. Of course, this can’t be correct either. In reality, we all arrive at our views in roughly the same way. As Marc Penn puts it in his book Microtrends most people get their news from highly unreliable sources including various websites, chats with friends, the occasional news show, and "their own gut." That means, surprisingly, that "most people end up being wrong much of the time about what is actually going on." So, what do we need to do to gain a more accurate perspective? The first thing we need to do is acknowledge that we have opinions and beliefs that are wrong. That simple acknowledgment opens the door for the next step. But, acknowledgment is important. We have to really come to terms with the fact that we hold views that are wrong. We may not know, yet, which views those are, but we have to face up to the fact that some of our views are entirely wrong and many of our views are probably partially wrong. Then what? Well, the process will be the same for whichever belief or opinion we investigate so pick one to start with. The next step will likely be unpleasant in the extreme. But, it is necessary. Go looking for evidence that shows that your belief is wrong. Set out to disprove the belief. As the philosopher of science, Karl Popper advised, attempt to falsify your belief. Think of it as a stress test of your belief. Right now your unexamined belief is fragile. Granted it doesn’t feel that way, but it is. When you work to falsify it you are actually working to strengthen your overall view of the world. As Julia Galef, whom I mentioned in the previous episode put it, you are working to improve the accuracy of your map of the world. As you look for this evidence be sure to look for the most credible sources you can find. Don’t look for evidence that your own belief is wrong by going to the sources that tend to confirm your original belief is correct. They will probably not provide the strongest arguments against that belief. They may refer to arguments against but only to show they are weak and not worth bothering about. In order to really stress test your ideas, you want to subject them to the strongest examination possible. That means looking at the best arguments against them you can find. What do you do with those arguments and evidence once you find them? Take them seriously. Really learn about them. Spend some time with them. Imagine that these are the basis for your own belief. What does that feel like? Your initial reaction to this exercise might have been that you couldn’t imagine doing this because the beliefs of those who disagree with you are motivated by misinformation, lack of compassion, or worse, evil itself. If you look at our current public discourse on any given issue, it’s easy to find people who talk about the other side in just these terms. So you might think you’re betraying your side of the issue or your core principles. What you need to do to address this very real concern is to personalize this process. You probably know someone who holds beliefs on the issue you’re examining that are the opposite of yours. They may be a coworker, acquaintance, neighbor, or even a friend. You should consider the advice Elizabeth Lesser offers in her TEd talk titled Take the other to lunch. When you take them to lunch state upfront that you want to talk about an issue you disagree about but you want to do this in a specific way. Agree to some rules up front such as “Don’t persuade, defend, or interrupt. Be curious, be conversational, be real, and listen.” In the course of your lunch, Lesser advises that you each ask three questions: Share some of your life experiences with me. what issues deeply concern you? And What have you always wanted to ask someone from the other side? The point of this exercise is not necessarily to change your position although that could happen. The point is to gain an understanding of someone else’s point of view that goes beyond the superficial characterizations you hear from opponents of that view. The point is to really connect with someone who holds different views. Imagine what our public discourse could be if more people did this. In fact, more people used to do just that. Unfortunately, we’ve gotten very good at sorting ourselves into groups where we’re only exposed to ideas we agree with. If we are exposed to other ideas it is through the biased filter of our own view. Social media has made this self-selection process even easier and so we all to some degree or other live in our own echo chambers. Consider the possibility that you’re missing out on something important by staying in those echo chambers. Consider the possibility that the feeling you have of being right is just like the feeling of being wrong. There’s no way to tell the difference until you do a little digging. You might be pleasantly surprised by what you find. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast and visit me online at kevinjbrowne.com. Thank you for listening and I’ll see you on the next episode.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
kevin j. brownePhilosopher | Educator Archives
July 2022
improve your thinking: The course |