March 5, 2018· 26 min

Why The Human Brain Loves To Be Lied To

Orality
Model
71%
Oral-dominant (speeches, podcasts, storytelling)

Speaker Breakdown

HostJoe Weisenthal(1,676 words)
M:28%
HostTracy Alloway(524 words)
M:29%
GuestJay Van Bavel(2,541 words)
M:28%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic32%
literally, completely, absolutely
Engagement77%
you, our, your
Memory Aids100%
listen, now, see
Repetition100%
people (42x), about (39x), your (35x)
Parallelism100%
And I'm Tracy Alloway...., So we're not talking about pok..., But remember a couple weeks ag...
Sound Patterns67%
36 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"
Formulaic Phrases11%
you know what, i mean, the bottom line

Literate Indicators

Hedging10%
seemingly, might, maybe
Passive Voice5%
be compelled, being biased, are attached
Abstract Nouns19%
investment, recommendation, confirmation
Subordination11%
while, because, though
Sentence Length32%
Avg: 13.1 words/sentence
Word Complexity47%
investment, analyze, anticipate
Academic Markers0%
Impersonal Style23%
413 personal pronouns found
Descriptive Style87%
literally, completely, normally

Description

In theory, people should want to know accurate facts about the state of the world. In practice, it's not so simple. Because of the way we evolved, and how our brains work, there are often things that we prioritize above the truth (such as fitting in with some tribal identity). On this week's Odd Lots podcast, we speak with NYU professor Jay Van Bavel, about a new paper he co-authored titled "The Partisan Brain: An Identity-Based Model of Political Belief." It explains how political ideology leads people to have distorted views of the world, and though this paper is specifically about politics, it contains important lessons for people in the market, as they seek to overcome the biases that make them bad traders and investors.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.