Behavioral Grooves Podcast

Host of Hidden Brain podcast, Shankar Vedantam talks with us about the powers: both useful and harmful, of our delusional thinking. Nations are an example of useful delusions; they are an entirely human-made construct, yet they can present us with a unifying, shared identity.  There is a tipping point, however, at which our beliefs can become harmful to someone else. Shankar defines conspiracy theories as a particular type of self deception which can easily escalate into harmful behavior. Our conversation with Shankar touches on the Capitol Riots in Washington DC on January 6th 2021, and how conspiracy theories influenced the behavior of the rioters. “Conspiracy theories, I think are a sort of special case of self deception, which...can easily take over into things that are deeply harmful.” The challenge most of us face though, is how to talk to our friends and family who believe in conspiracy theories. And on that point, Shankar explains the Illusion Of Explanatory Depth and how conversations with our loved