Members
This class, featuring insights from experts like Steven Pinker and Gary Marcus, equips learners with critical thinking tools to navigate biases, understand scientific research, and make informed decisions in a media-saturated world, emphasizing the importance of questioning assumptions and grounding perceptions in data.
Members
This class explores human decision-making, emphasizing humility and data-driven analysis while addressing cognitive biases like availability bias and confirmation bias, ultimately equipping participants with strategies to improve judgment and navigate complex choices through a blend of psychological insights and practical applications.
In this excerpt from "When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...," Steven Pinker examines how crying may have evolved as part of a suite of emotional expressions aimed at strengthening social bonds.
Steven Pinker explains how to cultivate greater rationality in today's complex world.
Everyone commits this rationality error.
The formula for rational thinking explained by Steven Pinker.
Is it better to be rational or optimistic? Steven Pinker explains.
We need to enact policies founded on solid research — more importantly, though, we have to stop suppressing research into hot topics.
The processes behind our ability to make decisions are complex, but they're not miracles.
Without expressing and evaluating ideas, we would never be able to determine what's right or wrong.
In practice, no one has ever developed a democracy that works particularly well if judged in absolute terms. But all the alternatives so far have been worse.
When we see problems in the world, we're quick to blame someone—anyone—who should be providing peace, love, and harmony. But the universe actually bends toward chaos and decay.
It might seem like humanity disagrees over basic values, but the data is in: we actually don't.
"The starting point for understanding inequality in the context of human progress is to recognize that income inequality is not a fundamental component of well-being."
Steven Pinker believes there's some interesting gender psychology at play when it comes to the robopocalypse. Could artificial intelligence become evil or are alpha male scientists just projecting?
If you want to understand trends in the history of global violence, look to data, not headlines, says Harvard psychology professor and linguist Steven Pinker.
Today's video is part of a series on genius, in proud collaboration with 92Y's 7 Days of Genius Festival.
Professor Steven Pinker illustrates how the study of linguistics can give us a rare window into the conscious mind.
In this selection from his Floating University lecture, Professor Steven Pinker deduces the nature of language acquisition by examining the generative use of grammar in children.
