“Bugs in our reasoning” have three distinguished characteristics. First, they result in poor choices, inaccurate perceptions, or faulty memories. Second, they are so easy and natural to make we don’t realize they are happening. Third, as a result of their naturalness, it is difficult to avoid the bugs but if you learn to recognize them and know how to think critically, these errors can be reduced. When examining the “we prefer stories to statistics” bias, it is easy to see how the characteristics of the “bugs in our reasoning” relate to the bias.
While watching the film about Wendell Johnson’s stutter study, the sad music and emotional pictures had a bigger impact on me than the picture of the statistical chart. The difference in presentation of the two gave the audience a faulty perception of the accuracy of the statistics versus the film. The emotional …show more content…
For example, there are commercials on the television for the ASPCA that are shown pretty frequently. The commercials show dogs trembling and cats in the corner of a cage with eyes full of desperation and pain. The commercials play depressing piano music while a woman speaks as though she is in pain alongside the animals. The commercials do provide statistics such as “every hour an animal is beaten,” but I have never double-checked the accuracy of them. The commercials ask for monetary donations in order to rescue an animal from abuse. They advertise that you can get a “photo of an animal in the shelter and a beautiful tote bag” for free. However, the membership does have a fee of eighteen dollars a month. The first time I saw this commercial I wanted to call the organization but my mom told me not to. Looking back, I realize that the advertisers put together the ASPCA commercial to specifically target those who are fast thinkers. After seeing the commercial, I personally felt attached to the animals and really wanted to help
While watching the film about Wendell Johnson’s stutter study, the sad music and emotional pictures had a bigger impact on me than the picture of the statistical chart. The difference in presentation of the two gave the audience a faulty perception of the accuracy of the statistics versus the film. The emotional …show more content…
For example, there are commercials on the television for the ASPCA that are shown pretty frequently. The commercials show dogs trembling and cats in the corner of a cage with eyes full of desperation and pain. The commercials play depressing piano music while a woman speaks as though she is in pain alongside the animals. The commercials do provide statistics such as “every hour an animal is beaten,” but I have never double-checked the accuracy of them. The commercials ask for monetary donations in order to rescue an animal from abuse. They advertise that you can get a “photo of an animal in the shelter and a beautiful tote bag” for free. However, the membership does have a fee of eighteen dollars a month. The first time I saw this commercial I wanted to call the organization but my mom told me not to. Looking back, I realize that the advertisers put together the ASPCA commercial to specifically target those who are fast thinkers. After seeing the commercial, I personally felt attached to the animals and really wanted to help