{"id":36994,"date":"2024-03-22T00:12:33","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T07:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=36994"},"modified":"2024-03-22T00:12:33","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T07:12:33","slug":"exploring-why-were-wrong-about-nearly-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/exploring-why-were-wrong-about-nearly-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring “Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I once heard it said that the greatest lie of all time is that we think we\u2019re thinking, but in reality, most of the time, we\u2019re simply operating off social conditioning and habit. Upon initially hearing this statement, I couldn\u2019t help but pause and see its truth. I then began wondering how much of what I usually think is not what I think. Contemplating this, my mind jumped back to my freshman year of college. It was day one of \u201cCommunication 101,\u201d I\u2019ll never forget the professor stating, \u201cYour perception is your reality.\u201d\u00a0 It blew my mind to think about this.\u00a0 I was 16 then, and it was one of my first memories of a teacher inviting me to challenge what I saw, felt, and believed as \u201c truth.\u201d\u00a0 For weeks and months, my mind would continue to spin ( in all the most exciting and wondrously furious ways), jumping down the rabbit hole of human behavior to engage all things related to perception, truth, and right versus wrong.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Illusion of Understanding<\/b><\/p>\n

How confident are you in your understanding of the world? Does most of what you hear, see, read, or engage make sense and do you feel certain that your sensemaking of it all is accurate?\u00a0 Better yet, what does it mean to be accurate or right in your understanding?<\/span><\/p>\n

I invite you to think about a time when you were really certain about something, but it turned out you were wrong. Take a moment to reflect on what happened and how it felt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Kathryn Shultz\u2019s TED Talk, \u201dOn Being Wrong,\u201d she opens by inviting the audience to consider a similar question. They respond with negative feelings often associated with being wrong, or so they think. Upon hearing responses such as \u201cbad\u201d and \u201cembarrassed,\u201d Shultz\u00a0 highlights how those are actually answers to a different question: <\/span>\u201cWhat does it feel like to <\/span>realize<\/span><\/i> you\u2019re wrong?\u201d <\/span>[1] <\/span>She goes on to reveal how, in reality, being wrong feels like being right because we don’t know we’re wrong most of the time.\u00a0 She shares two powerful examples to help make her case. The first is of a road trip she took with a friend where she found herself regularly befuddled by a sign they kept passing written in Chinese. When she asked her friend if she knew what it meant, her friend immediately laughed and said that it wasn’t Chinese but a picnic table symbol to indicate an upcoming rest area. Upon being provided the alternative view, she instantly knew her friend was right and couldn\u2019t believe how easily she had misinterpreted something seemingly so simple. The second example is of a <\/span>doctor at Mass General Hospital in Boston who operated on the wrong side of a woman’s body. When the PR team spoke about the incident, they said, “For whatever reason, the doctor simply felt like he was performing on the right side of the body”[2].\u00a0 These scenarios give us great insight into the relativeness of \u201crightness\u201d and how relying too heavily on a <\/span>feeling <\/span><\/i>can lead to dangerous repercussions. That said, when it comes to the illusion of understanding, I believe what\u2019s most important is being aware that our perception shapes our sense of reality and then investigating the depth of its impact\/influence on our lives.\u00a0 Shultz says, <\/span>“Our capacity to err is essential to our ability to learn and grow” [3], and I couldn\u2019t agree more, but if that\u2019s the case, then we need to explore what gets in the way of our ability to embrace failure and understand why \u201c<\/span>We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The Influences Within and Around Us<\/b><\/p>\n

In “Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything,”\u00a0 Bobby Duffy outlines how research highlights how much people grossly misunderstand the world. Despite an overabundance of information on the internet, research says we haven\u2019t necessarily grown better informed because of it.\u00a0 Duffy takes a deep dive into this, citing two main reasons why we get<\/span> so many things wrong:\u00a0 1) how we think (the internal biases and mental shortcuts that lead us astray) and 2) what we\u2019re told (by media, society, and our families).[4] Ultimately he says why we\u2019re wrong has everything to do with the interplay of how our brains think and the media, using his book to show us how each feeds off of the other, with the power of vivid imagery via anecdotes driving our thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. [5]<\/span><\/p>\n

In discussing \u201cmental shortcuts\u201d that often undermine our ability to think for ourselves, Duffy pulls from Daniel Kahneman\u2019s work in \u201cThinking Fast and Thinking Slow.\u201d\u00a0 His book explores the two “systems” of our brains constantly fighting for control over our behavior and actions: System One is automatic and impulsive (i.e. mental activity performed without effort), whereas System Two is conscious, aware, and considerate (i.e. mental activity that requires effort) [6]. Through these two systems, Kahneman highlights how our brains are naturally lazy and default to the route of least resistance. This is where I go back to the \u201cgreatest lie in the world\u201d because while we might initially think we\u2019re making active decisions, our brains are wired for what’s easy, which gives way to various \u201cintellectual errors\u201d[7] \u2013\u00a0 such as confirmation bias and the <\/span>Dunning-Kruger effect.<\/span> Again we learn where we can and can’t trust our \u201cgut\u201d feelings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s interesting about Duffy\u2019s work is that he looks at more than 10 studies by IPSOS across 40 countries to explore why populations in some countries seem more informed than others and how to address the gaps in ignorance.\u00a0 The studies highlight polls on subjects such as teen pregnancy, immigration levels, crime rates, global poverty, and how many people use Facebook [8]. Questions like \u201cIs the Great Wall of China seen from Outer Space?\u201d are used to understand what influences our responses. For this specific question, 50% of the respondents got it wrong. When we investigate why, we\u2019re shown a handful of explanations that have to do with \u201cdrawing on faulty prior knowledge, answering a different question than the one we are asked, juggling comparisons across different scales, relying on \u2018fast thinking,\u2019 and missing how our emotions shape what we see and think\u201d [9]. Duffy says we combat these “perils of perception” on a daily basis.\u00a0 Something that often hits me is just how much inaccurate information we consume from what we assume are \u201ccredible sources\u201d like authority figures\/ thought leaders, TV shows and news.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, this is only the beginning regarding external influences. Another popular saying is, \u201c \u200b\u200bWe don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are,<\/span>\u201d which speaks to the cultural lens and societal narratives we must unpack if we want to discern their influence on our perceptions and ability to shape our understanding.\u00a0 We filter everything through a biased lens that we often don\u2019t realize is biased until someone points it out concretely.\u00a0 The question then becomes, how do we empower ourselves to discern truth from falsehood?<\/span><\/p>\n

How We Know What to Believe<\/b><\/p>\n

Duffy closes the book with a variety of solutions for managing our misunderstandings. While there is no escaping being wrong about nearly everything, Duffy says there is still hope. This hope can be found in slowing down to discern whether we\u2019re being led astray and knowing the common traps that led to our grossly biased worldviews. A few of the ways forward he names that resonate most with me include accepting the emotion but challenging the thought,\u00a0 cultivating skepticism but not cynicism, anticipating and embracing the diversity of perspectives we each bring, and remembering that facts aren’t \u201ccure-alls\u201d but do have value.[10] While there\u2019s a lot of work to be done on a larger scale in terms of shifting critical, statistical, and news literacy, the way forward can be summed up in what Tim Halford calls his \u201cgolden rule,\u201d <\/span>which is about staying open and curious. [11] If we remain curious, we\u2019ll be less likely to misunderstand, and the world will open up in a new way. This includes not only asking questions of how we decide what information to believe when we see it online, TV, or print news, but also about how to know when to trust our emotions as helpful support versus when they’re aiding an unhealthy sensationalism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, if we focus more energy on thinking slowly, embracing humility, seeking out diverse perspectives, listening with openness and empathy, and leaning into the gift that comes from a continual process of embracing our ability to err and get things wrong, our world will be all the better for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]Kathryn Schulz, \u201cOn Being Wrong,\u201d www.ted.com (TED, March 2011), <\/span>https:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/kathryn_schulz_on_being_wrong?language=en<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]Ibid<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]Ibid<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]Sturesson, Andr\u00e9 . \u201cWhy We\u2019re Wrong about Nearly Everything – Professor Bobby Duffy.\u201d www.youtube.com. Health Psychology and Human Nature, March 10, 2020. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=86tfiGCmiNE.<\/span><\/p>\n

[5] Ibid<\/span><\/p>\n

[6]Kahneman, Daniel. <\/span>Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/span><\/i>. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.<\/span><\/p>\n

[7]Ibid<\/span><\/p>\n

[8] Duffy, Bobby. <\/span>Why We\u2019re Wrong about Nearly Everything : A Theory of Human Misunderstanding<\/span><\/i>. New York, New York : Basic Books, 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

[9]Ibid<\/span><\/p>\n

[10]Ibid<\/span><\/p>\n

[11] Harford, Tim. <\/span>Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics.<\/span><\/i> New York City, New York, US: Riverhead Books, 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I once heard it said that the greatest lie of all time is that we think we\u2019re thinking, but in reality, most of the time, we\u2019re simply operating off social conditioning and habit. Upon initially hearing this statement, I couldn\u2019t help but pause and see its truth. I then began wondering how much of what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2640,2967],"class_list":["post-36994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-duffy","tag-dlgp03","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36995,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36994\/revisions\/36995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}