Books

[dsrtao]

_The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount_, Gershom Gorenberg
_Predictably Irrational_, Dan Ariely

In general, people don't think logically; they think associatively and emotionally.

Correlation is not correlation, but if you lead a horse to water, he will probably drink.

Self-reinforcing belief structures (such as religions) don't collapse when an exterior force impacts them. They are compacted, made more dense, and become both stronger and stranger.

Everything anyone says can and probably will be misinterpreted. Not only is clear communication difficult, previous experiences in the listener can inspire them to hear hidden meanings that the speaker did not intend.

Speakers can also shape their words so that a significant proportion of their listeners will misinterpret their meaning in a particular way.

One of these books is about theories of people acting in non-rational ways, and the other is about the practical realities of people acting in non-rational ways.

Comments

[robertdfeinman.livejournal.com]

You might like "The Political Mind" By George Lakoff. It's his most recent in a set where he discusses the use of metaphor not only in how we speak, but how we organize our ideas internally.

You need to filter a bit of his political overlay, but the two books you mentioned have some of this as well, so I suppose you don't mind a bit of propagandizing.

Steven Pinker also has a new book out about thought and language, but it is a bit too long and his topics are all over the place. It still has some wheat among the chaff.

[dsrtao]

Gorenberg feels pretty neutral for an Israeli. Ariely doesn't discuss politics at all, although he's an ex-Israeli.

[gyzki.livejournal.com]

Correlation is not correlation

Is this a deliberate paradox, or a typo for "causation"? Not being snarky, just sincerely wanting to know--if it's the paradox, could you unpack a little?

[dsrtao]

Typo.