The Rational Animal | Dan Ariely, Patty Kostkova, Paul Bloom

Professor of Psychology Dan Ariely, Yale psychologist Paul Bloom and Professor in Digital Health Patty Kostkova debate if humans are truly rational animals.

Watch the full debate at https://iai.tv/video/the-rational-ani...

Humans are rational animals. Or so many would have us believe. Yet, during the pandemic decisions by individuals, institutions and governments are rarely driven by the data. Do you know the relative risk of taking the vaccine, and not taking it? Or will you just wait to see what others, experts and celebrities, do? Are you aware that the risk of dying from alcohol and tobacco related diseases in 2020, some 8.5 million people last year, was five times the risk of dying from covid, with 1.6 million deaths?

Do we all need to wise up and get more rational about our decisions and the risks we do and don't face? Or are humans evolved to make social and emotional decisions, relying on the value and importance of crowd responses? And more fundamentally which is the best strategy for survival, emotion or reason?

#reason #rationality #emotion

Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, and a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight.

Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale University. Paul's research explores how humans learn to understand the world - how we learn the meanings of words, grow to understand what we want and how to get it, and develop our sense of right and wrong.

Patty Kostkova is Professor in Digital Health and the Director of UCL IRDR Centre for Digital Public Health in Emergencies. She is a world leading researcher in the novel interdisciplinary domain of digital public health.

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