The Smarter We Are, the Dumber About the Facts We Can Be | Risk: Reason and Reality

"What a golden age these past few decades have been for learning about how human cognition works. And what a humbling age, as we discover the truth that satirist Ambrose Bierce perceived more than 100 years ago in The Devil’s Dictionary, that the brain is only the organ with which we think we think. With yet another shrewd experiment, Dan Kahan and colleagues have added more evidence to the now overwhelming case that humans are indeed quite smart and rational, but that ‘smart’ and ‘rational’ have less to do with making objective judgments and decisions that accurately align with the facts, and more to do with our ability to shape the facts into judgments and decisions that feel right and help us feel safe, even if those judgments and decisions fly in the face of the facts and they are bad for us…even if they are dangerous...."
The full fascinating story by David Ropiek @The Smarter We Are, the Dumber About the Facts We Can Be | Risk: Reason and Reality | Big Think: