Jun 26 2009
Psycho Logical: The Rudiments of Cognition
There are two types of thoughts in this world. In your right hand you’ve got logical thoughts and in your wrong hand you’ve got irrational thoughts. Right? Wrong.
As more and more is becoming understood about human psychology, simplistic notions about thinking, and the base categories we shoe-horn mental behavior into, are going the way of the Dodo. Or should.
In the very least, we are understanding that conscious intellectual activity is truly just the visible tip of an iceberg of cognition. So much important stuff goes on beyond our awareness. A fascinating new piece of research nicely illustrates this point.
From the APS website (American Psychological Society) I learned of an experiment that looked at how the perception of proximity, or nearness, can influence our judgment about how blemished or tainted an object is likely to be. In the case of one phase of the experiment, the objects were wrapped-up mugs.
The volunteers who were told that one of the mugs contained a gift coupon selected from the mugs which were close together. Conversely, the volunteers who were informed that one of the mugs was defective chose from the group of mugs that were spaced far apart.
What does mug spacing have to do with likelihood of one outcome or the other? Nothing. Is this irrational behavior? I don’t think rationality is a proper term.
In a second phase the objects were ketchup bottles. Did the subjects behave “logically” about these?
[V]olunteers had to choose among ketchup bottles (as before, the bottles were in two groups, close together or spaced farther apart). This time, some of the participants were told that either one or three of the bottles had defective lids, while the remaining participants were told that either one or three of the bottles contained gift coupons. It turns out that the volunteers who were told that three of the bottles had defective lids were the most likely to choose from the spaced apart group and the volunteers who thought that three of the bottles contained gift coupons were the most likely to choose from the closely spaced group.
Fascinating research. One of the things it highlights is that much of our cognitive processes evolved to handle social situations. That specific psychological “hammer” we now apply to many different types of nails. Or even screws, as the case may be.
Are human beings illogical and irrational? Sometimes. But how often do we set out to engage in these activities and fail?Yes, in those cases, call the thought wrong. But don’t call it illogical. What should it be called instead? Good question. Maybe alogical? I don’t know. I wish I had a word for it. Do you?
