Monthly Archives: October 2022

Unsafe conviction

Posted on October 28, 2022 by koenfucius

We are more often (and often more) convinced about things than we really should. In his book On being certain, neurologist Robert Burton recounts an anecdote involving a young woman suffering from acute encephalitis, who was convinced she was dead. … Continue reading →

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(Over)valuing possession

Posted on October 21, 2022 by koenfucius

featured image: Maria J Aleman/Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Hardly anything has an objective value, but even our subjective valuation of something may be clouded by a consideration of questionable relevance. Last week, I shipped a box containing a large number … Continue reading →

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Zero shades of grey?

Posted on October 14, 2022 by koenfucius

Society seems more polarized than ever: opinions tend to be devoid of nuance, leaving little opportunity for compromise and tolerance. Are we unavoidably on a course to a black-and-white world? Our earliest primate ancestors, who emerged around 74 million years … Continue reading →

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The strange phenomenon of U-turn aversion

Posted on October 7, 2022 by koenfucius

(featured image: kreatikar/Pixabay) Reversals of earlier decisions – U-turns – attract a lot of criticism, and we tend to be reluctant to make them. Why is that, and is this a problem? In October 1980, Margaret Thatcher, just in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavioural economics, Cognitive biases and fallacies, Economics, Emotions, politics, Psychology, Society | Tagged | Leave a comment