Hey there, Shankar here.
As we reach the end of 2017, there are four words you almost never hear, whether that's from people in the news or from friends and family.
You're right, I'm wrong.
We don't hear those words, and we don't say those words because we all have elaborate mental defenses to keep threatening ideas at bay.
These psychological defenses can give us a short term boost, even as they expose us to long term risks.
We're taking a bit of time off this week, so we thought we'd share a conversation from March with the neuroscientist Tali Sharrot.
We found this episode helped us understand why it's so hard to listen to ideas that challenge our beliefs.
It also gave us some techniques to help us see the world with fewer biases and preconceptions.
As you gather with friends and family to celebrate the new year, we hope you'll find it useful, too.
This is hidden brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
There are certain issues where we just don't see eye to eye with people on the other side of the political aisle.
Often it feels like we don't just disagree over policy.
We can't even agree on the facts.
I think people are mostly just set in their ways.
I would say I'm right.
Objectively, the facts prove that there is global warming.
I mean, I don't know how you.
Can dispute it, but everybody thinks they're right.
I think they're wrong.