Bad arguments inoculate us against good arguments
When encountering a good argument for the first time, we often mistake it for a familiar bad argument and dismiss it. For example, the author ignored Gary Klein's work on intuition because of prior exposure to pseudo-mystical claims about intuition, even though Klein referred only to pattern-matching.
THE IDEA
2. Bad arguments inoculate us against good arguments
When we do encounter a good argument that’s new to us, we often mistake it for a bad argument we’re already familiar with. For example, cognitive psychologist Gary Klein studies how people change their minds in high-stakes contexts like firefighting or nursing. Klein’s work has been very helpful to me in understanding how real-world decision-making works, and in recognizing some of the shortcomings in academic studies of decision-making.
Yet I ignored Klein’s work for years after I first heard of him. That’s because he talks about the “power of intuition,” which made me associate him with the kind of people who exalt intuition as a pseudo-mystical sixth sense that deserves precedence over all other forms of evidence, including science. That’s not Klein’s view. By “intuition” he’s simply referring to our brains’ built-in pattern-matching abilities. But because I had encountered so many people saying things like “I don’t care what science says—my intuition tells me ghosts are real,” I automatically lumped Klein in with them.
When to use it
Evaluating a new scientific study that uses terminology similar to a debunked pseudoscience.
Listening to a political argument that sounds like a common fallacy but might actually be sound.
Learning about a psychological concept that has been misrepresented in popular culture, such as 'intuition' or 'gut feeling'.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Ignoring Gary Klein's work due to association with pseudo-intuitive claims
The author initially dismissed Gary Klein's research on intuition because she associated the term 'intuition' with pseudo-mystical claims (e.g., 'ghosts are real because I feel it'), not realizing Klein meant pattern-matching. This led to years of ignoring valuable insights about real-world decision-making.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
Can you recall a time when you dismissed a valid argument because it reminded you of a flawed one you’d heard before?
How can you tell the difference between intuition as pattern-matching and intuition as a pseudo-mystical claim?
What steps could you take to avoid automatically rejecting new arguments that resemble bad ones?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- The Scout Mindset (Julia Galef)