TED Talk by “Wrongologist” Kathryn Schulz:
It could be depressing to be reminded that you’re probably wrong about many things you believe. But I thought about a number of things I’d like to find out I’m wrong about, and maybe I am wrong about at least one of them.
Related posts:
I did not have time to watch this because I have a paper due, but I am glad I took the time. So, I guess I was wrong in thinking that my time would be better spent writing the paper.
Knowing that you’re wrong also gives you a chance to become right.
She also has an interesting (though apparently defunct) blog of interviews about being wrong: http://www.slate.com/blogs/thewrongstuff.html
Sam Harris also has a lot to say on the subject of being wrong. He basically thinks that religion = “wrong ideas”.
John: Impressive, thank you for posting that!
I esp. liked the part where she said that how incredibly risky it is to base beliefs only on your feelings. It is also that many people just so strongly “feel” that their beliefs are right that they despise other people.
One thing she didn’t talk about but what I would add is that there are actually beliefs that are even worse than just being wrong: These beliefs cannot even be wrong because you can’t proof nor disproof them (or scientifically put, they can’t even be falsified). That means that they are just meaningless (and in most cases only based on feelings too).
There are many examples that come to mind that fit into this category and in most cases they have made the world indeed a worse place because there are no criteria whatsoever to decide upon them – but only the necessarily incompatible feelings of each of their proponents.
Excellent. Drawing a distinction between being wrong and between realizing you’re wrong is very important. You can be wrong regardless of whether or not you realize it, people who are better about accepting being wrong are thus much more likely to be right ultimately.
To follow up, this basic idea, the willingness to accept being wrong underlies all all of science and also of modern engineering and technology. It is the very foundation of our modern world and has been the single most potent tool for advancement and good in all of human history. Humanity spent tens of millenia grudgingly advancing at a slow pace, but when it began to formalize the process of accepting being wrong it started curing disease, growing unprecedented amounts of food, flying through the air, and travelling beyond Earth to the Moon and the planets all within a matter of a few centuries. It’s impossible to overstate how important this fundamental idea is.