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Can optimism blind us?

Eric Barker
October 13, 2011

 

Absolutely.

From Eurekalert, via FuturePundit:

In a study published today in Nature Neuroscience, researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) show that people who are very optimistic about the outcome of events tend to learn only from information that reinforces their rose-tinted view of the world…

And:

The researchers found that people did, in fact, update their estimates based on the information given, but only if the information was better than expected. For example if they had predicted that their likelihood of suffering from cancer was 40%, but the average likelihood was 30%, they might adjust their estimate to 32%. If the information was worse than expected â for example, if they had estimated 10% â then they tended to adjust their estimate much less, as if ignoring the data.

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TheRedArchive is an archive of Red Pill content, including various subreddits and blogs. This post has been archived from the blog bakadesuyo.

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Post Information
Title Can optimism blind us?
Author Eric Barker
Date October 13, 2011 10:57 AM UTC (12 years ago)
Blog bakadesuyo
Archive Link https://theredarchive.com/blog/bakadesuyo/can-optimism-blind-us.15179
https://theredarchive.com/blog/15179
Original Link https://www.bakadesuyo.com/2011/10/can-optimism-blind-us/
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