Gullibility occurs because we have evolved to deal with information using two fundamentally different systems, according to Nobel Prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman.
System 1 thinking is fast, automatic, intuitive, uncritical and promotes accepting anecdotal and personal information as true. This was a useful and adaptive processing strategy in our ancestral environment of small, face-to-face groups, where trust was based on life-long relationships. However, this kind of thinking can be dangerous in the anonymous online world.
System 2 thinking is a much more recent human achievement; it is slow, analytical, rational and effortful, and leads to the thorough evaluation of incoming information.
While all humans use both intuitive and analytic thinking, system 2 thinking is the method of science, and is the best available antidote to gullibility. So, education tends to reduce gullibility and those who receive scientific training in critical, sceptical thinking also tend to be less gullible and less easily manipulated.
Differences in trust can also influence gullibility. This may be related to early childhood experiences, with the idea that trust in infancy sets the stage for a lifelong expectation the world will be a good and pleasant place to live.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday April 01 2017, @02:02AM (3 children)
It feels good and is easy to just go with the lower brain.
Its a survival skill that has served mankind (indeed all animals) well over hundreds of thousands of years.
The idea that System 2 thinking is a much more recent human achievement, is clearly based on modern mind sets, not the tribal truths learned by our ancestors at the point of a spear. Trust of the local family/tribe goes hand in hand with wariness and suspicion of those guys from over the river that put a spear into grandpa Ugg's chest.
That snap of a twig in the bush is FAR more likely to be something hungry than something wanting to give you some berries.
Suspicion came first. Trust came later. He's got it exactly backward. I'm still not sure trust is real or lasting.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @03:56AM (1 child)
> I'm still not sure trust is real or lasting.
Trust is the foundation of all human achievement.
Every building you see, every road, every bridge, every airplane, EVERYTHING manmade would not exist without trust.
Without trust there is no such thing as civilization.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday April 03 2017, @05:13PM
I think you are confusing a truss with trust.
Building standards are legislated, codified, mandated, inspected, revised, upgraded, and retrofitted.
Buildings must be permitted before construction, inspected during and after construction, certified for occupancy, and may be condemned when obsolete.
Why? Because trust (and in many cases the trusses as well) proved insufficient. Many were killed, and buildings fell.
Unless we are talking about a tent in the widerness, you can't buy a building on trust, you can't build a building on trust. Society does not trust you or your builder. Resistance is futile. Prepare to be verified!
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday April 01 2017, @08:37AM
That snap of a twig in the bush is FAR more likely to be something hungry than something wanting to give you some berries.
Well, hello, beautiful!
Suspicion came first. Trust came later. He's got it exactly backward. I'm still not sure trust is real or lasting.
Yeah! froj is back! And in fine form. No one does concern-trolling like the master! Of course, I am still not sure I trust him. He is consistent with right-wing propaganda, but how do I know that is not just a ploy? Oh, crap, there goes my frojack trust! I knew it couldn't last!