Beliefs and Social Influences

It’s easy to forget what it was like when you were a child and an adult’s word was law. I remember asking a family member if Hell was real when I was a child and they replied “yes” with such certainty that I was instantly compelled to know that it must be true. When we...

Same Predicament, Different Response

Whether something is real or not and whether something is exaggerated or not, one thing we can be certain of is that it feels real to the person experiencing it. Whatever it happens to be, big or small, is subjectively real to that person.We might think someone being brought to tears at the idea of...

Same Information, Different Ideas.

If we all have good reasoning skills then shouldn’t we all be coming to the same conclusions based on the information we have? We are all exposed to similar information about things every day yet come to completely different conclusions than our friends. Why is this? One possible explanation is subjective viewpoints. Take this simple...

Bad Ideas are the Sharpening Stone of Good Ideas

Bad ideas are the sharpening stone for good ideas and the articulation of those ideas. If we think an idea is good, kindness for example, and leave it at that then this idea is just a platitude. It offers nothing except to make us feel like we said something good. But have that idea questioned...

Are we good at knowing how much we know?

Nobody likes coming across like they don’t know what they are talking about. Some people will avoid topics that they don’t know anything about to avoid showing their ignorance. Others will nod along with the conversation despite having no idea what is being talked about. I have found myself in this situation a few times...

Ill-founded Argument: Financial Motivation = Must be Wrong?

There are many ways in which we can be convinced that something is true. If we are not convinced a tsunami has taken place but someone shows us video footage of the event then we will most likely be convinced that it did happen. Unfortunately there are more bad ways to be convinced something is...

On being understood.

One of the things I am most interested in is being understood i.e. communicating ideas in a way that their can be no misunderstanding. When you are in a conversation with someone and you have explained something and they reply, “I don’t understand” or “what do you mean?” you have not communicated your ideas clearly...

Contradictory and Justified Belief

Most of us walk around with a sense of certainty about what we know about the world that has never been questioned or examined at any level.Someone can know something and change their opinion and will always say they used to believe that thing, but they won’t say they used to know it. If someone...

Emotion and the inability to think critically

We believe what we want to believe and not what is true. We harbour beliefs and biases that reject change and it can be a good thing. The social conditioning we received growing up taught us to be wary of new or different information. In the modern world where facts are at our fingertips it’s...

Misrepresenting what Is

Being misrepresented is an uncomfortable experience but not uncommon. If you pay close attention you can see how you are constantly being misrepresented in everyday life. Little situations like someone making you a coffee and you letting them know it’s lukewarm only to have them reply, “so you’re saying I’m shit at making coffee? You’re...