Inevitable Illusions: How Mistakes of Reason Rule Our Minds"Fascinating and insightful. . . . I cannot recall a book that has made me think more about the nature of thinking." -- Richard C. Lewontin Harvard University Everyone knows that optical illusions trick us because of the way we see. Now scientists have discovered that cognitive illusions, a set of biases deeply embedded in the human mind, can actually distort the way we think. In Inevitable Illusions, distinguished cognitive researcher Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini takes us on a provocative, challenging, and thoroughly entertaining exploration of the games our minds play. He opens the doors onto the newly charted realm of the cognitive unconscious to reveal the full range of illusions, showing how they inhibit our ability to reason--no matter what our educational background or IQ. Inevitable Illusions is stimulating, eye-opening food for thought. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Cognitive Illusions | 17 |
Calculating the Unknown | 105 |
Copyright | |
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50 percent Amos Tversky asked average Baker bank teller base rates Bayes Bayesian Behavior bets bias bility Bill biotine blind spot calculation certainty chance Chapter choice classical clinical cognitive illusions cognitive science cognitive scientists conjunction effect correct answer correlation Daniel Kahneman decision theory disjunction effect E. E. Smith event examples expected utility experiments fact factors fallacy George Boolos Gigerenzer given happens heuristics human hypothesis Illusory Correlation imagine instance intuitive irrational Journal Judgment under Uncertainty L. J. Savage Linda logic lose magical thinking mathematical mental tunnels minds nature neglect of base normative objective offered Osherson overconfidence paradox perfectly Prisoner proba probabilistic probability probability theory problem profiles Prospect Theory psychological questions rational reader reason red-red regret risk sion situations Slovic specific spontaneous statistical strategies subjects tainty theory things tion tive true Tunnel Exits Tversky and Kahneman typical York