Testing Rationality and Bias
How can we test our rationality and various biases?
Shouldn’t you get more rationality credit if you spend more time studying common biases, statistical techniques, and the like? Well this would be good evidence of your rationality if you were in fact pretty rational about your rationality, i.e., if you knew that when you read or discussed such issues your mind would then systematically, broadly, and reasonably incorporate those insights into you reasoning processes.
But what if your mind is far from rational? What if your mind is likely to just go through the motions of studying rationality to allow itself to smugly believe it is more accurate, or to bond you more closely to your social allies?
So just because you know of all the cognitive biases and fallacies doesn’t mean you’re not going to fall victim to the bias blind spot or actually become more rational.
This puts me in mind of this (paraphrased) quote from an anonymous advertising executive:
Those who claim to be well versed in the ‘psychology of advertising’ and to therefore be ‘immune’ not only don’t know much about psychology or advertising, but are our ideal targets.