So, You Think You're So Smart?

by rrusczyk, Feb 13, 2009, 3:55 PM

Here are some interesting findings that I don't find particularly surprising -- people with high IQs are just as prone to all sorts of irrational biases as people with low IQs...

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A good book on a subset of these biases is Bryan Caplan's "The Myth of the Rational Voter"

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8384.html

by djcordeiro, Feb 13, 2009, 11:56 PM

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It's something all people should know. Smarter people tend to be more easily flattered / distracted by selective truths. Two of salespeople's best tactics. Also, there's paralysis by analysis.

by alexhhmun, Feb 14, 2009, 12:51 AM

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such as the irrational bias against people with low IQs...

by Stank, Feb 15, 2009, 3:39 AM

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I need to read this research carefully at some point, but from Cowen's overview I am worried it may be off target. Cognitive biases are like optical illusions: it's not that you can eliminate them, it's that you can learn about them, learn to consciously watch out for them, and recalibrate your responses. The stick still looks bent!

It strikes me as unsurprising that smart people who've never learned about cognitive biases will be as affected by them as less-smart peers, just like it's unsurprising that smart people are equally fooled by optical illusions.

The question is, are smarter people better able to do the second order task of adapting their perceptions and responses once they have learned about bias? My intuition and experience suggest that they are, on average. In fact, I would find it pretty surprising if they weren't, since smart people on average seem much more "metacognitive," often to their emotional detriment.

It's possible that some of this research addresses this question. I scanned a couple of papers and didn't see any suggestion that the subjects had been taught about cognitive bias.

by sandor, Feb 19, 2009, 4:57 AM

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