126. Debiasing: How to Change Your Mind | THUNK

Critical thinking is well and good, but it only really helps if you’re willing & able to change your mind!

-Links for the Curious-

THUNK - 86. Cognitive Biases & the Socratic Method -

[talrefae]

By far the most underrated show on YouTube. Thanks for the quality content, Josh!

[yan_man]

I just discovered this channel, and I believe these videos would be very beneficial to me as I go through my epistemology class. Thanks for the uploads!

[MetsuryuVids]

That wrench comparison was perfection.

[SuperLLL]

Great video, as usual. It's great that you are covering biases in multiple videos, they are definitely worth it. I really like the idea of a debiasing toolkit to try and prevent some of them.
Personally, I find myself to be more prone to anchoring my beliefs whenever I don't know a topic extensively, whereas my opinion becomes more nuanced as I become familiar with the subject matter at hand.
I do think that understanding the topic requires System 2 thinking and critical reasoning: at the same time, however, it appears that one might leave some islands of bias that become rooted into otherwise correctly-understood topics.

[justthecoolestdudeyo]

One thing I thought was interesting was about how more intelligent people tend to change their mind less. While some of that is probably because more intelligent people are more likely to be initially correct in their assessment of something, I think it is a good wake-up call that just because you think you're smarter than someone doesn't mean their points don't have validity, or that you must be much more correct about them. I'm a bit of a dumbass, but I also know that I put blinders on if reading a comment online that I strongly disagree with or my family brings up politics or religion, and it's hard to take them down

[_Aarius_]

notification squad :D

good vid. personally know i need to bee more careful with this shit when i argue online. ...

[freerovingbovine]

“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.”
― David Hume

[sirskinny]

I recently got a list of cognitive biases, the idea is im going to work through them and learn about as many as possible so i can pick situations where they might come into play and head my brain off at the pass

[IanMacLeansnv]

Great episode. So let's have a shout out for the writers of Star Trek, TOS. Because Spock trained a lot of this into me, and I like to think I'm already there. (And yes, I'm open to being proved wrong). Characters like Spock are INCREDIBLY valuable to society, and we need more of them.

[isablondethng]

I think a lot of de-biasing might be what we call becoming wise over becoming smart. Not the only definition of wise by any means, but I think it certainly fits under the umbrella of it. There are still a ton of biases that I grapple with (and after living in a different country for a good chunk of time, I found myself having to actively battle NEW ones-despite the foreign language effect mentioned in one of your links above), but I have noticed things or rules that I have set up for myself the older I get. Things that are similar in spirit to the not going to the grocery store hungry, in order to reduce the chance of making decisions that I would regret or disagree with later.
This is a great path toward self-improvement, and I'd give them all a shot. I'm quite the arguer sometimes (though I like to think I've gotten better-and I'd like to think I keep trying to get better), so this is something that's quite important to me.

[Concentrum]

great video, thanks for keeping them coming!

[AmaranthOriginal]

It's interesting to me that I suffer from PTSD, and some of these debiasing techniques resemble steps my therapist puts me through to cope with it (along with more general anxiety issues).

[arthurs]

Hey ! I like your videos so much, they are helping me to finish my proseminar! Do you also have some videos about Debiasing Trainings or some sources?
thank you !

[somecuriosities]

I know it sounds simple but being mindful you have biases and that you are likely to fall back on these biases when feel attacked/threatened when someone challenges your beliefs is, in of itself, a good way to put the brakes on any knee-jerk reaction caused by your beliefs.

[Fiddling_while_Rome_burns]

I am guilty of cognitive bias, as a rule I take Thunk videos much more seriously than I do pewdiepie's. I must debias my mind.

[sandeepvk]

Amazing channel. You are taking a cue from slaw and fast thinking by Daniel Kahneman

[deanrobinson]

Galinsky & Ku, 2004 link not working. Great vid.

[aBigBadWolf]

Josh, do you have Patreon? I'm a student but I'd like to support you with a little of the little I have :)

[CosmoShidan]

Any chance you might explore Sextus Empiricus, Pyrhonianism and the Gettier problems?

[chiarscur]

I'm trying to do a case-study of a few people on a college campus who believe that violent recourse for political beliefs is justifiable. Being on a college campus, most of the people I expect to interview will be "Punch a nazi" types rather than their (often more lethal) right wing equivalents. I am somewhat strongly committed to the idea that justifying political violence is a quick road to widespread destabilization and killing. How might I go about making my interviewees comfortable espousing their vitriolic beliefs in such a way that I can study and understand the system by which one comes to justify political violence?