You Are Not So Smart | Mockingbird

Are We Really Who We Used To Be? Understanding Consistency Bias

by David Zahl on Jan 31, 2013 • 2 Comments

There’s an old cliche that gets trotted out at weddings. It’s not politically correct, but it always gets some laughs. “A woman marries a man hoping he’ll change and become the incredible husband she knows he can be–and then he doesn’t. And a man marries a woman hoping that she’ll always be the girl he fell in love with and never change–and then she does.” Or something like that. Put the gender considerations aside for a moment. The saying is getting at something fundamental about human nature. We change too much and not enough. On this site, we probably overemphasize…

Identity / Law / Psychology / Religion / Social Science

The Authenticity Hoax: Perpetual Coolhunts and the Law of Keeping It Real

by David Zahl on Oct 11, 2012 • 5 Comments

Authenticity is a very rich vein. In fact, there may not be a richer one at this moment in our cultural milieu. It’s a buzz word, sure, but it’s a buzz word because it has become value numero uno for a certain type of post-Cobain, Generation Why mindset, and I would include myself in that demographic. Turns out it didn’t die out with grunge (or punk) at all – it merely adopted a new and more self-consciously ironic vernacular. Instead of “posing” and “selling out”, we talk about things as “pandering” or “artificial”; instead of describing people/places/things as “earnest” or…

Identity / Psychology / Social Science

The Secret Cost of Getting Paid to Do What You Love: Self-Perception Theory and the Overjustification Effect

by David Zahl on Mar 12, 2012 • 7 Comments

A few months ago, the man behind the invaluable You Are Not So Smart blog, David McRaney, put out a book of the same name (actually, the full title is You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself) compiling and expanding upon his site. McRaney is a self-described psychology nerd with a special interest in what can only be called fallibility. So the book is pretty much a layman’s index of the psychology of human error, bias, delusion, defense, etc. It’s great.…