LESSON FIVE: All the Kingsmen

Why Facts Don't Change Our Minds

In 1975, researchers at Stanford invited a group of undergraduates to take part in a study about suicide. They were presented with pairs of suicide notes. In each pair, one note had been composed by a random individual, the other by a person who had subsequently taken his own life.

TAKE A NEW YORK MINUTE: The New Yorker has an excellent expose on Why Facts Don’t Change Our Mind. Usually we are most concerned with having facts at hand to win an argument which isn’t a great vibe for thinking clearly. When assessing a problem, your first take might not be the best one. 

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TALK ABOUT IT: Julia Galef is co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality, trying to help people make better, more reasonable decisions. In her TED Talk, Galef asks: “What do you most yearn for? Do you yearn to defend your own beliefs, or do you yearn to see the world as clearly as you possibly can?” For most, the answer is the former and Galef traces the motivations for such behavior using “a compelling history lesson from nineteenth-century France.” A history lesson to teach psychology? An idea whose time has come.

Julia Galef: Why you think you're right -- even if you're wrong

Perspective is everything, especially when it comes to examining your beliefs. Are you a soldier, prone to defending your viewpoint at all costs -- or a scout, spurred by curiosity? Julia Galef examines the motivations behind these two mindsets and how they shape the way we interpret information, interweaved with a compelling history lesson from 19th-century France.

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EXPOSE YOURSELF: Eli Pariser is the author of The Filter Bubble (2012) about how personalized search engines might be limiting our exposure to novel ideas. When companies like Google tailor your experience on the web, you are less likely to “get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview.” Pick up the book or check out his TED Talk. Be sure to follow the link and not look for it through a search engine, or you may not get there. 

Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles"

As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there's a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a "filter bubble" and don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview.

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OPEN THE BUREAU: Lest you think the FBI involvement with the Kingsmen is the stuff of my imagination, the entire FBI study of Louie, Louie is available online at: . The file opens in February of 1964, just a few months after the Kennedy assassination. You would think they had better, more pressing things to investigate, but the historical record doesn’t lie. 

Louie Louie (The Song)

In 1963, a rock group named the Kingsmen recorded the song "Louie, Louie." The popularity of the song and difficulty in discerning the lyrics led some people to suspect the song was obscene. The FBI was asked to investigate whether or not those involved with the song violated laws against the interstate transportation of obscene material.

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William O. Douglas

William O. Douglas was a legal scholar and often controversial 20th century Supreme Court justice known for his civil liberties advocacy.

GO TO COURT: Stop making up excuses to skip jury duty and watch a live trial. The decisions we all make are a lot like the battle between prosecution and defense. The facts you seek, and the ones you ignore, depend on which side you represent. And we aren’t just talking about petty crimes and misdemeanors. Associate Justice of the Supreme Court William O. Douglas was, to his credit, at least aware of his bias during the longest tenure in the court’s history (1939–1975). “At the constitutional level where we work, 90 percent of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting our predilections.” That kind of honesty couldn’t help but make him controversial, so read up on his biography. 

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PLEDGE DELTA: Filmed not far from Portland, at the University of Oregon, Animal House (1978) has even more incomprehensible singing of Louie Louie and the kind of life advice that everyone agrees with. Like this: “Fat drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son.” Why watch it? Why not?!