Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things
(youtu.be)
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How does one account for bias without using their own bias in the test?
Is "bias" in this study nothing more than "wrong think" as the creator of the study sees it?
Or is there some objective standard?
One example was gun control, and whether smart/dumb people demonstrate political bias.
How is that tested for, exactly?
Presumably, anyone who would create such a study must see themselves as intelligent, too, which according to their own standard, would make them more biased than others.
Also, the author of this video (the person who wrote the script) claims that intelligence is a measure of the effectiveness of pursuing a goal.
IMO, that is a REALLY stupid definition of intelligence.
Intelligence is a measure of the ability for abstract thinking, versus concrete thinking (what "could be" or how "this relates to that," versus "what is," or "this is this, and that is that").
The author can claim that a computer can be "intelligent" because it effectively processes 1's and 0's, but that is just a machine operating the way intelligent humans designed it. It is not actually intelligence, per se.
He says, "Rationality is intelligence in pursuing objective truth." No, rationality is the use of logic (reason) to identify objective truth. One does not need a high degree of intelligence to figure out how to get from the house to the grocery store.
"I want foodl the food is over there. I need to drive over there." Sure, there is SOME abstract thinking involved, but not on the level that it takes to figure out how to build the car in the first place.
The less intelligent person can figure out how to use something AFTER someone smarter figured out how to create it; but they can't create it themselves. And they don't need to, because they have a different role in society.
The less intelligent person might have other skills that make them the world's BEST at using something, but they could not figure out how to create it in the first place. For that, one needs abstract thinking ability.
He then gets into "rational" vs. "Irrational" beliefs. BUT ... rational/irrational according to WHOM?
The entire thing looks like bias. No doubt, we all have bias.
But the REAL difference is the level of cognitive dissonance.
If a person believes something and is confronted with evidence or a logical argument that refutes that belief, will the person cling to their belief or consider the new evidence, and possibly amend their current belief?
MANY people, regardless of intelligence level, have difficulty doing this. Others can do it fairly easily.
Many highly intelligent people have their identity wrapped up in something that causes them to not be able to control their cognitive dissonance. A university professor might be very intelligent, but if his training is all centered around believing things that turn out to not be true, he wll have a very difficult time dealing with the new evidence.
"It is difficult to get a man to believe something, when his salary depends upon him not believing it." -- Upton Sinclair
THIS is what makes the difference between those who can drop the pretenses of the world we live in to see it for what it is, and those who cannot.
I suspect it has a lot to do with the ego of the individual in question.
IQ measures ability to understand and manipulate abstract ideas,,,,NOT ABOUT REALITY.. Reality is self correcting by Truth (eventually).
Reality does not correct.
Reality does not change.
Reality is objective; not subjective.
Reality is "everything that exists."
What does change is our understanding or perspective OF reality.
There is no such thing as "your reality" vs. "my reality."
There is just (a) reality, and (b) my perspective of reality vs. (c) your perspective of reality.
Our perspective is how we view reality, with all our personal experiences, understandings, misunderstandings, and biases.
Both concrete concepts ("this is a table") and abstract concepts ("I would build a better table by doing such and such") are all part of reality.
It's just that these abstracts are within our own minds, which exist within us, and we exist in reality.
IQ measures one's ability to ACCURATELY understand abstract concepts. It has nothing (or not much) to do with concrete things or ideas, but it is ALL part of reality (which can be defined as "everything that exists," which includes both concrete things and abstract ideas).
abstract ăb-străkt′, ăb′străkt″ adjective
Considered apart from concrete existence.
Not applied or practical; theoretical.
Un observed ,understood , recognized Truth (facts) are real buy may not be part of current reality (of mankind) but upon discovery mans' reality changes. So yes , as Schrödinger's Cat Reality does not and does change,
No, you are taking that quote out of context.
The iPhone existed as a concept BEFORE it existed as a concrete thing you could use.
It takes a different level of intelligence to create it from nothing but an idea, versus to use it when it is already in your hand and connected to phone towers and the internet.
Reality itself did not change. The idea did not exist until someone thought of it. Then, it only existed as a concept. Finally it existed as a concrete thing.
But reality itself is "everything that exists." Something new can come into existence (or go out of existence -- people are born and people die), but that does not change what "reality" actually ... IS.