DeepSummary
Amanda Montell discusses her new book 'The Age of Magical Overthinking' which explores cognitive biases and how they influence modern irrationalities in the digital age. She explains how certain mental shortcuts developed to help make quick decisions for survival, but now get misapplied in the information overload of today's world, leading to irrational beliefs and behaviors.
Montell delves into specific biases like the halo effect with celebrities, proportionality bias and its link to conspiracy theories and manifestation trends, sunk cost fallacy in toxic relationships, and society's 'doomsday rhetoric.' She highlights how awareness of these biases can provide self-compassion and a framework for understanding erratic human behavior.
The conversation touches on the rise of new age beliefs among educated women, the blending of therapy language and spiritual rhetoric online, and how the overwhelming stimuli of the digital landscape exacerbates people's tendencies toward magical thinking as a means of regaining control and making sense of chaos.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Cognitive biases like the halo effect, proportionality bias, and sunk cost fallacy evolved as mental shortcuts for quick decisions, but in today's information overload they manifest as modern irrationalities.
- Irrational behaviors like conspiratorial thinking, catastrophizing, and toxic relationships can be understood through these psychological biases, providing self-compassion.
- The rise of new age beliefs, manifestation trends, and therapy/spirituality hybridization speaks to people's need for control and meaning amid digital chaos.
- Awareness and understanding of these cognitive biases can be empowering for improving decision-making and self-awareness.
- The uncertainty of the pandemic exacerbated tendencies toward fringe beliefs and magical thinking as means of regaining agency.
- Celebrity culture exemplifies the self-perpetuating halo effect and rigid perception biases surrounding public figures.
- Society's desensitizing 'doomsday rhetoric' reflects catastrophe fatigue from constant bad news bombardment.
- Overstimulation from virtual realities causes misapplication of biases meant for far simpler real-world contexts.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “So I was really fascinated by looking at so many of the irrational dululo, if you will, behaviors that we see in digital age life through the lens of these cognitive biases to help understand them better and feel better about them, too.“ by Amanda Montell
- “Fortunately, in so many parts of the world, survival, at least compared to 20,000 years ago, is more or less sorted. So we're displacing these biases onto virtual problems or interpersonal problems involving, you know, hundreds of identities that we might perceive on social media versus the twelve in our tiny tribe, so to speak.“ by Amanda Montell
- “I've found that just becoming aware of each of these biases, each chapter is dedicated to a different one, which I use to explore some example of an irrationality in the broader culture in my own life. But yeah, like, I have found that the awareness alone of each of these biases has been hugely beneficial for my own decision making.“ by Amanda Montell
- “There was once a time when a lot of these cognitive biases developed, when, you know, the most information you would ever encounter in a day was like, you know, how am I going to find food? How am I going to navigate my very small community? And now we're assigned with this glut of information.“ by Amanda Montell
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Episode Information
Unladylike
Unladylike Media
4/9/24
What do vision boards and Princess Diana conspiracy theories have in common? They both rely on a kind of magical thinking called proportionality bias. It's one of many cognitive biases that returning guest Amanda Montell connects to all the woo-woo and delulu going around these days. From the sunk cost fallacy of toxic relationships to the halo effect of female celebs to the declinism of everyday doomsday speak, Amanda makes even the most mindboggling and brainrotting realities of today's (mis)information overload more bearable.
Highlights include: Beyonce's vegan surprise, Charli XCX stans, Earth Mamas, therapy influencers, TikTok astrologers and "learning to stomach a sense of irresolution."
Amanda's new book is The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality.
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