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I don't think they pretend that this is science - it's for a documentary. I also don't believe the point is to "denounce" TV shows. The real point may be clear

by zemaj 17y ago

I don't think they pretend that this is science - it's for a documentary. I also don't believe the point is to "denounce" TV shows. The real point may be clear in this quote from a participant; "I wanted to stop the whole time, but I just couldn't. I didn't have the will to do it. And that goes against my nature," he said. "I haven't really figured out why I did it." We think of ourselves as having control over our actions. We're pretty good as justifying most of the things we do within mental models we make of ourselves. However, the reality is that often our actions are driven primarily by external forces. The human brain is full of biases created through evolution that shape our behaviour far more we often like to admit. I think the feeling of disgust that media like this induces is primarily that realisation. We look for reasons why it can't be so. The good news is that once you start to understand where our biases are we can compensate to a degree, or at least include them in our mental models. Wikipedia has a nice collection of cognitive biases http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases and http://lesswrong.com/ http://lesswrong.com/ is an interesting community trying to educate itself on this topic amongst other things.

allyt 17y ago
The good news is that once you start to understand where our biases are we can compensate to a degree, or at least include them in our mental models. Isn't it backwards to realize the logical models of our actions are only justifications for unconscious drives, and then try to categorize those drives through the very same logical models we just agreed are only good at hindsight justification? What is the point? To justify your self-image of being part of some "rational elite"?
- SapphireSun 17y ago
  The resason is that we have a priority on what we value and that some of those drives temporarily promote values that conflict with our more stable ones. By including a list of those types of events in our mental models, we can compensate and maintain a stable priority list that won't cause us regret later.
- zemaj 17y ago
  Cognitive biases don't mean that the brain as a whole is irrational. While we can't always stop the cognitive biases from occurring, we can avoid situations where they occur. For example when choosing a candidate for a job you want to make a decision before comparing with other people's opinions to avoid the bandwagon effect. However some you can actually mitigate, just by knowing they happen. For example everyone has loss aversion - where we overvalue the loss of something in compared to how much we value gaining from it first place. By knowing that you have loss aversion you can focus on thinking about how much you actually gained when thinking about how much something will cost when you lose it to get a more "real" estimation. For example I'm giving up a business I've been running for years - it's painful to do and something I've been putting off, but I can mitigate the pain but genuinely examining what benefit I've gained, not just making the decision based on the vague "I don't want to give this up" feeling. It works for lots of things; relationships, jobs, etc... Personally I do it mostly because I like control. I don't like not understanding my decisions. Understanding why I did something makes me "feel" better. That in itself is reason enough :)

by zemaj 17y ago

allyt 17y ago

The good news is that once you start to understand where our biases are we can compensate to a degree, or at least include them in our mental models. Isn't it backwards to realize the logical models of our actions are only justifications for unconscious drives, and then try to categorize those drives through the very same logical models we just agreed are only good at hindsight justification? What is the point? To justify your self-image of being part of some "rational elite"?

SapphireSun 17y ago
The resason is that we have a priority on what we value and that some of those drives temporarily promote values that conflict with our more stable ones. By including a list of those types of events in our mental models, we can compensate and maintain a stable priority list that won't cause us regret later.
zemaj 17y ago
Cognitive biases don't mean that the brain as a whole is irrational. While we can't always stop the cognitive biases from occurring, we can avoid situations where they occur. For example when choosing a candidate for a job you want to make a decision before comparing with other people's opinions to avoid the bandwagon effect. However some you can actually mitigate, just by knowing they happen. For example everyone has loss aversion - where we overvalue the loss of something in compared to how much we value gaining from it first place. By knowing that you have loss aversion you can focus on thinking about how much you actually gained when thinking about how much something will cost when you lose it to get a more "real" estimation. For example I'm giving up a business I've been running for years - it's painful to do and something I've been putting off, but I can mitigate the pain but genuinely examining what benefit I've gained, not just making the decision based on the vague "I don't want to give this up" feeling. It works for lots of things; relationships, jobs, etc... Personally I do it mostly because I like control. I don't like not understanding my decisions. Understanding why I did something makes me "feel" better. That in itself is reason enough :)