Al Owski > Recent Status Updates

“Based on his review of the research, Leary suggested that self-esteem is more like an internal gauge, a "sociometer" that continuously measures your value as a relationship partner. Whenever the sociometer needle drops, it triggers an alarm and changes our behavior.”

“Mark Leary, a leading researcher on self-consciousness, thought that it made no sense for there to be a deep need for self-esteem. evolutionary For millions of years, our ancestors' survival depended upon their ability to get small groups to include them and trust them, so if there is any innate drive here, it should be a drive to get others to think well of us.”

“I'll show that reason is not fit to rule; it was designed to seek justification, not truth. I'll show that Glaucon was right: people care a great deal more about appearance and reputation than about reality. In fact, I'll praise Glaucon…the guy who realized that the most important principle for designing an ethical society is to make sure that everyone's reputation is on the line all the time…”

“But in an unjust city, one group's gain is another's loss, faction schemes against faction, the powerful exploit the weak, and the city is divided against itself. To make sure the polis doesn't descend into the chaos of ruthless self-interest, Socrates says that philosophers must rule, for only they will pursue what is truly good, not just what is good for themselves.”

“Socrates approaches it with an analogy: Justice in a man is like justice in a city (a polis, or city-state). He then argues that a just city is one in which there is harmony, cooperation, and a division of labor between all the castes. Farmers farm, carpenters build, and rulers rule. All contribute to the common good, and all lament when misfortune happens to any of them.”

“Glaucon's thought experiment [the Ring of Gyges] implies that people are only virtuous because they fear the consequences of getting caught—especially the damage to their reputations. Glaucon says he will not be satisfied until Socrates can prove that a just man with a bad reputation is happier than an unjust man who is widely thought to be good."

“Wouldn't it have been most adaptive for our ancestors to figure out the truth, the real truth about who did what and why, rather than using all that brainpower just to find evidence in support of what they wanted to believe? That depends on which you think was more important for our ancestors' survival: truth or reputation.”

“Why do we have this weird mental architecture? As hominid brains tripled in size over the last 5 million years, developing language and a vastly improved ability to reason, why did we evolve an inner lawyer, rather than an inner judge or scientist?”

“The elephant (automatic processes) is where most of the action is in moral psychology. Reasoning matters, of course, particularly between people, and particularly when reasons trigger new intuitions. Elephants rule, but they are neither dumb nor despotic. Intuitions can be shaped by reasoning, especially when reasons are embedded in a friendly conversation or an emotionally compelling novel, movie, or news story.”

“But if there is affection, admiration, or a desire to please the other person, then the elephant leans toward that person and the rider tries to find the truth in the other person's arguments. The elephant may not often change its direction in response to objections from its own rider, but it is easily steered by the mere presence of friendly elephants…”

“When does the elephant listen to reason? The main way that we change our minds on moral issues is by interacting with other people. We are terrible at seeking evidence that challenges our own beliefs, but other people do us this favor, just as we are quite good at finding errors in other people's beliefs. When discussions are hostile, the odds of change are slight.”

“I have argued that the Humean model (reason is a servant) fits the facts better than the Platonic model (reason could and should rule) or the Jeffersonian model (head and heart…). But when Hume said that reason is the "slave" of the passions, I think he went too far. A slave is never supposed to question his master, but most of us can think of times when we questioned and revised our first intuitive judgment.”

“Moral judgment is not a purely cerebral affair in which we weigh concerns about harm, rights, and justice. It's a kind of rapid, automatic process more akin to the judgments animals make as they move through the world, feeling themselves drawn toward or away from various things. Moral judgment is mostly done by the elephant.”

“immorality makes people want to get clean. People who are asked to recall their own moral transgressions, …find themselves thinking about cleanliness more often… Zhong calls this the Macbeth effect, named for Lady Macbeth's obsession with water and cleansing after she goads her husband into murdering King Duncan. (She goes from "A little water clears us of this deed" to "Out, damn'd spot! out, I say!") ”

“Other researchers have found the same effect by asking subjects to fill out questionnaires after drinking bitter versus sweet drinks. As my UVA colleague Jerry Clore puts it, we use "affect as information." When we're trying to decide what we think about something, we look inward, at how we're feeling. If I'm feeling good, I must like it, and if I'm feeling anything unpleasant, that must mean I don't like it.”

“Juries are more likely to acquit attractive defendants, and when beautiful people are convicted, judges give them lighter sentences, on average." That's normal affective primacy making everyone lean toward the defendant, which tips off their riders to interpret the evidence in a way that will support the elephant's desire to acquit.”

“Zajonc said that thinking could work independently of feeling in theory, but in practice affective reactions are so fast and compelling that they act like blinders on a horse: they "reduce the universe of alternatives" available to later thinking." ”

“The second process—thinking—is an evolutionarily newer ability, rooted in language and not closely related to motivation. In other words, thinking is the rider; affect is the elephant. The thinking system is not equipped to lead—it simply doesn't have the power to make things happen—but it can be a useful advisor.”

“In a landmark article, Zajonc urged psychologists to use a dual-process model in which affect or "feeling" is the first process. It has primacy both because it happens first (it is part of perception and is therefore extremely fast) and because it is more powerful (it is closely linked to motivation, and therefore it strongly influences behavior).”

“almost everything we look at triggers a tiny flash of affect. More important, Zajonc was able to make people like any word or image more just by showing it to them several times. The brain tags familiar things as good things. Zajonc called this the "mere exposure effect," and it is a basic principle of advertising.”

“I finally understood—not just cerebrally but intuitively and with an open heart—the admonitions of sages from so many eras and cultures warning us about self-righteousness. I've already quoted Jesus (on seeing "the speck in your neighbor's eye"). Here's the same idea from Buddha: "It is easy to see the faults of others, but difficult to see one's own faults." ”

“So there I was at my desk, writing about how people automatically fabricate justifications of their gut feelings, when suddenly I realized that I had just done the same thing with my wife. I disliked being criticized, and I had felt a flash of negativity by the time Jayne had gotten to her third word…”

“A physician is worth more than several other men put together, for he can cut out arrows and spread healing herbs.”

“Dale Carnegie was one of the greatest elephant-whisperers of all time. In his classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People, Carnegie repeatedly urged readers to avoid direct confrontations. Instead he advised people to "begin in a friendly way," to "smile," to "be a good listener," and to "never say 'you're wrong." The persuader's goal should be to convey respect, warmth, and an openness to dialogue…”

“You can't make a dog happy by forcibly wagging its tail. And you can't change people's minds by utterly refuting their arguments. Hume diagnosed the problem long ago: "And as reasoning is not the source, whence either disputant derives his tenets; it is in vain to expect, that any logic, which speaks not to the affections, will ever engage him to embrace sounder principles.” ”

“The rider…can see further into the future…and therefore it can help the elephant make better decisions in the present. It can learn new skills and master new technologies, which can be deployed to help the elephant…And, most important, the…rider is skilled at fabricating post hoc explanations for whatever the elephant has just done, and it is good at finding reasons to justify whatever the elephant wants to do next”

“Margolis helped me ditch the emotion-cognition contrast. His work helped me see that moral judgment is a cognitive process, as are all forms of judgment. The crucial distinction is really between two different kinds of cognition: intuition and reasoning. Moral emotions are one type of moral intuition, but most moral intuitions are more subtle; they don't rise to the level of emotions.”

“Emotions are a kind of information processing. Contrasting emotion with cognition is therefore as pointless as contrasting rain with weather, or cars with vehicles.”