I was a little ticked off at your guest for this one. On the one hand she tells us our instincts should not be considered irrational, and that we should often trust them. On the other hand she has written a book that tells web developers strategies that get people to do things based on those vey biases in our instincts.

I highly recommend Keith Stanovich’s book The Robot’s Rebellion, especially the chapter on how evolutionary psychology goes too far. He argues very persuasively that people in our contemporary world know strategies that take advantage of our set of autonomous systems for their own profit. Maybe it’s good to trust your instincts when you choose a mate, or something else that resembles the decisions made in our evolutionary environment, but if you go with your gut when choosing an insurance plan you will often pick the one best for your employer or the insurance company, not you. When two choices are offered by an organization that has something to gain with one choice over another, that is when it is time to overcome blind spot bias and be rational.

Started studying Psychology this year after 22 years (54 yrs old) of Employment Law. Thanks for great listening stuff and other articles. This is so neat as I now hear, study and see things in a different light or should I say “perfect” light. Youtube and your site my daily jump now.

Glad you liked the podcast and thanks so much for linking to my site. I love that image of the brain that you have for your episode. Where did you get that from? Very eye-catching image.

Michael