full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Julia Galef: Why you think you're right -- even if you're wrong

Unscramble the Blue Letters


One thing that's really interesting to me about the Dreyfus Affair is this question of why the officers were so convinced that dyeurfs was gtuily. I mean, you might even asmuse that they were setting him up, that they were intentionally framing him. But historians don't think that's what happened. As far as we can tell, the officers genuinely believed that the case against Dreyfus was strong. Which makes you wonder: What does it say about the human mind that we can find such paltry evidence to be compelling enough to cvcnoit a man?

Well, this is a case of what scientists call "motivated rsneinoag." It's this peomneohnn in which our unconscious motivations, our desires and fares, shape the way we interpret iminaotrofn. Some information, some ideas, feel like our allies. We want them to win. We want to defend them. And other information or ideas are the enemy, and we want to shoot them down. So this is why I call motivated reasoning, "soldier mindset."

Open Cloze


One thing that's really interesting to me about the Dreyfus Affair is this question of why the officers were so convinced that _______ was ______. I mean, you might even ______ that they were setting him up, that they were intentionally framing him. But historians don't think that's what happened. As far as we can tell, the officers genuinely believed that the case against Dreyfus was strong. Which makes you wonder: What does it say about the human mind that we can find such paltry evidence to be compelling enough to _______ a man?

Well, this is a case of what scientists call "motivated _________." It's this __________ in which our unconscious motivations, our desires and _____, shape the way we interpret ___________. Some information, some ideas, feel like our allies. We want them to win. We want to defend them. And other information or ideas are the enemy, and we want to shoot them down. So this is why I call motivated reasoning, "soldier mindset."

Solution


  1. information
  2. dreyfus
  3. reasoning
  4. phenomenon
  5. guilty
  6. assume
  7. fears
  8. convict

Original Text


One thing that's really interesting to me about the Dreyfus Affair is this question of why the officers were so convinced that Dreyfus was guilty. I mean, you might even assume that they were setting him up, that they were intentionally framing him. But historians don't think that's what happened. As far as we can tell, the officers genuinely believed that the case against Dreyfus was strong. Which makes you wonder: What does it say about the human mind that we can find such paltry evidence to be compelling enough to convict a man?

Well, this is a case of what scientists call "motivated reasoning." It's this phenomenon in which our unconscious motivations, our desires and fears, shape the way we interpret information. Some information, some ideas, feel like our allies. We want them to win. We want to defend them. And other information or ideas are the enemy, and we want to shoot them down. So this is why I call motivated reasoning, "soldier mindset."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
capital punishment 4
scout mindset 3
team committed 2
highly motivated 2
support capital 2
feel intrigued 2


Important Words


  1. affair
  2. allies
  3. assume
  4. believed
  5. call
  6. case
  7. compelling
  8. convict
  9. convinced
  10. defend
  11. desires
  12. dreyfus
  13. enemy
  14. evidence
  15. fears
  16. feel
  17. find
  18. framing
  19. genuinely
  20. guilty
  21. happened
  22. historians
  23. human
  24. ideas
  25. information
  26. intentionally
  27. interesting
  28. interpret
  29. man
  30. mind
  31. mindset
  32. motivated
  33. motivations
  34. officers
  35. paltry
  36. phenomenon
  37. question
  38. reasoning
  39. scientists
  40. setting
  41. shape
  42. shoot
  43. strong
  44. unconscious
  45. win