XPRT TALK: Religion in society explained using decision heuristic science
Religious beliefs are core elements of people’s identities and this very fascinating talk helps shed light on the many different cognitive biases at play in the realm of religious practice.
Some heuristics addressed in this talk include:
Belief bias: the human predisposition to accept an argument that supports a conclusion that aligns with their beliefs, while rejecting counter arguments.
Salience effect: the tendency to see a purpose to coincidental occurrences.
Ingroup bias: the tendency of humans to give preference to people in their own group.
Distinction bias: the tendency to view two options as more distinctive when evaluating them simultaneously than when evaluating them separately.
Fundamental attribution error: the tendency to assume that a person's actions depend on what "kind" of person that person is rather than on the social influences.