Mr. TincherYou Are Not So SmartPage 1 of 5

Directions

This assignment is designed to be unlike any assignment you have had to date in your schooling career. This is meant to be fun and informative and I hope you find that it is. This book will give you greater understanding about you, who you are, and a greater understanding about those around you. Then, we will use the concepts contained in this novel to apply them to characters in the stories we read throughout the year. The purpose of which is to build on your current understanding and help you see how these concepts manifest themselves in real life. Furthermore, it is hoped that once you have an understanding of yourself, and the protagonists in the stories we read, you will have a greater understanding of your peers, siblings, parents, and grandparents. With increased understanding you will have greater compassion and understanding; therefore, your life will be less stressful and far more enjoyable. In the end, I hope the things you learn this year will stay with you for the rest of your life and will contribute to you being a well-balance person and one who is happy.

Feel free to discuss any of these ideas with your parents and seek their opinions. The concepts in this book will be a key component to all literary analysis we do this year. As this book deftly illustrates, it is good to question and challenge things you hear and if you haven’t started to do this yet, then now is the time!

Reading Schedule and Due Date

Due June 29th: Introduction-Chapter 10

Due July 27th: Chapters 10-38

Due Aug 10th: 39-48

All assignments must be turned in through turnitin.com.

Log into your account/ click on “Add Class” / Class Id is 6471080 / password is junior.

Introduction

  1. Who are the only people to have never made a stupid mistake?
  2. Every brain is infested with what?
  3. In your own words, describe the Wason Selection Task.
  4. True or False: The brain is better at seeing social situations than logical puzzles.
  5. The three main topics of this book are ____, ___, and ___.
  6. What is a cognitive biases?
  7. Cognitive biases leads to what?
  8. What is confirmation bias?
  9. _____ are mental shortcuts you use to solve common problems.
  10. What are logical fallacies?

Chapter 1: Priming

  1. Our subjective and experience is divided into two areas, what are they?
  2. What is priming?
  3. What study did Chen-Bo Zhong and Katie Liljenquist use to learn more about the human unconsciousness?
  4. Describe the experiment Aaron Kay, Christian Wheeler, John Barghand, and Lee Ross constructed.
  5. When does priming work best?
  6. The brain hates ambiguity, so what will it do?
  7. Priming takes place in the ______- a place largely inaccessible.
  8. When do you use the adaptive unconscious?
  9. How much information can your conscious, rational mind handle?
  10. Which part of the brain is better equipped to handle complex tasks? Why?
  11. Why does Lehrer argue, “you know more than you know”?
  12. Why do people invent narratives to explain their feelings?
  13. When are you most open to priming?

Chapter 2: Confabulation

  1. Why don’t you notice your blind spot?
  2. What is your corpus callostomy?
  3. Why does a “split-brain” patient have difficulty verbalizing something they saw?
  4. What is confabulation?
  5. Why is introspection flawed?
  6. What are qualia?
  7. Explain heterophenomenology.

Chapter 3: Confirmation Bias

  1. Explain confirmation Bias in your own words.
  2. Provide an example of confirmation bias from your summer vacation.

Chapter 4: Hindsight Bias

  1. Explain Hindsight Bias in your own words.
  2. Provide an example of hindsight bias in your own life.
  3. Why do our minds delete “garbage”?
  4. What is the availability heuristic?

Chapter 5: The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy

  1. What is the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy?
  2. Why do people engage in the Texas Sharpshooter philosophy?

Chapter 6: Procrastination

  1. Explain present bias.
  2. Why were some children able to resist the marshmallow and others were not?
  3. Why do people procrastinate?
  4. What is hyperbolic discounting?
  5. How can one overcome procrastination?

Chapter 7: Normalcy Bias

  1. In any perilous event, what is one possible way people may react?
  2. What did John Leach discover about people freezing under stress?
  3. What is Normalcy Bias?

Chapter 8 Introspection

  1. Briefly describe the Poster Test?
  2. Why do humans have difficulty explaining their emotions?
  3. What is the introspection illusion?

9. The Availability Heuristic

  1. Which phrase typifies the availability heuristic?
  2. Which is easier to believe, examples or something presented with numbers and abstract facts.
  3. Which is more probable, a victim of a school shooting or a lightning strike?
  4. What did Tversky and Kahneman’s study prove?
  5. How would you summarize the Availability Heuristic effect?

Chapter 10: The Bystander Effect

  1. In your own words, explain the bystander effect.
  2. Give an example from your life when you witnessed the bystander effect or summarize one of the examples in this chapter.
  3. Which fear contributes to the bystander effect?
  4. What is the author’s advice regarding the bystander effect?

Chapter 11: The Dunning-Kruger Effect

  1. What is the Dunning-Kruger effect?
  2. Why do people engage in the Dunning-Kruger effect?

Chapter 12: Apophenia

  1. How is your mind like television and film?
  2. What is Apophenia?
  3. When does Apophenia become a problem?
  4. Explain the Littlewood Law?
  5. Apophenia isn’t just seeing order in chaos but also _____.

Chapter 13: Brand Loyalty

  1. Why is one person more likely to be a fanboy of an iPad rather than toilet paper or gasoline?
  2. What does it mean to be branded?
  3. How does one become branded?
  4. Your choice is purely emotional and you defend your decision.
  5. What is the sunk cost fallacy?
  6. When people try to convince you their product is better than yours, what are they really trying to do?

Chapter 14: The Argument from Authority

  1. Explain the argument from authority?

Chapter 15: The Argument from Ignorance

  1. What is the argument from ignorance?

Chapter 16: The Straw Man Fallacy

  1. What is a straw man?

Chapter 17: The Ad Hominem Fallacy

  1. What is the ad hominem fallacy?
  2. Give an example of an ad hominem attack.
  3. What is the reverse of the ad hominem fallacy?

Chapter 18: The Just-World Fallacy

  1. Why do some people blame the victim?
  2. Explain the just-world fallacy.
  3. Why do people construct a just-world fallacy?
  4. Provide an example of just-world fallacy.
  5. What does the author suggest one should do with their just-world fallacy?
  6. How can one make the world more just and fair?

Chapter 19: The Public Goods Game

  1. Describe the Public Goods Game

Chapter 20: The Ultimatum Game

  1. In the ultimatum game, why would it be odd for anyone to reject any amount offered to them?
  2. Why would one reject a low offer in a the ultimatum game?
  3. How do humans ensure fairness?

Chapter 21: Subjective Validation

  1. What is the Forer effect?
  2. What is subjective validation?
  3. What is something you have personalized in your life?
  4. How did Stanley Jaks save Hyman from his delusion?
  5. Why are mediums and palm readers successful?

Chapter 22: Cult Indoctrination

  1. When do people experience cult phenomenon?
  2. According to David Myers, why do people join cults?
  3. Why do we seek out groups?
  4. How can one differentiate between a cult and a leader?

Chapter 23: Groupthink

  1. What must happen in order for a group to survive?
  2. Why doesn’t groupthink work in a job setting?
  3. In order to avoid groupthink, what must happen?
  4. Groupthink depends on three conditions, what are they?
  5. Which kind of group is more likely to arrive at a better decision?

Chapter 24: Supernormal Releasers

  1. Why is the Australian jewel beetle sexually attracted to beer bottles?
  2. What is a supernormal releaser?
  3. What is a superstimulus for men?
  4. What is a superstimulus for women?
  5. How do men and women try to obtain an “impossible goal”?

Chapter 25: The Affect Heuristic

  1. What did Veronika Denes-Raj and Seymour Epstein discover about intuitive and rational processing?
  2. What is the affect heuristic?
  3. How do we use the affect heuristic?
  4. When do we use the affect heuristic?

Chapter 26: Dunbar’s Number

  1. Our brain limits the number of acquaintances to about ____.
  2. More specifically, it’s between 150 and 230
  3. Why this number?
  4. Dunbar says that efficiency is predicated by how large the primate’s ____.
  5. In the event of a zombie apocalypse, what is the maximum number of people to have in your group?

Chapter 27: Selling Out

  1. What is the paradox of consumer rebellion?
  2. How do people define themselves today compared to in the past?
  3. List some example of how people fight over the status of modern day items or items in the past. If you are a fan of Pawn Stars, consider the items people bring in for pawn and their value.

Chapter 28: Self-Serving Bias

  1. What purpose does self-esteem serve?
  2. How can self-esteem be destructive?
  3. According to Anne Wilson and Michael Ross, how do we view our past success and failures?
  4. How can illusory superiority help you become a better student?
  5. On average, how do people view themselves compare to others?
  6. To whom do we lie the most?

Chapter 29: The Spotlight Effect

  1. What is the spotlight effect?
  2. Give an example of the spotlight effect.
  3. According to the study conducted by Thomas Gilovich , how much attention do people pay towards you.

Chapter 30: The Third Person Effect

  1. What is the third person effect?
  2. Why do people engage in the third person effect fallacy?
  3. What does the author suggest we should do when censorship is proposed?

Chapter 31: Catharsis

  1. What does the word catharsis mean?
  2. Does venting your anger actually work? Explain your answer.

Chapter 32; The Misinformation Effect

  1. How does your brain handle memories?
  2. What did Elizabeth Loftus’ study prove about memories?
  3. How do scientists think our brain assembles memories?
  4. Why are schemas inaccurate?
  5. Are memories perfect or imperfect? Explain.

Chapter 33: Conformity

  1. What percentage of the population are conformists?
  2. Give examples of conformity you have seen in your life.
  3. Why are we conformists?
  4. What did Milgram’s experiment reveal?
  5. How could an entire nation have its moral compass smashed?
  6. Is conformity good or bad? Support your answer.

Chapter 34: Extinction Burst

  1. When does your brain throw a temper tantrum?
  2. What is the difference between classical and operant conditioning?
  3. What is extinction burst?
  4. What will happen when you try to quit a habit?

Chapter 35: Social Loafing

  1. What is social loafing?

Chapter 36: The Illusion of Transparency

  1. When people try to see themselves through others’ eyes they often fail, why?

Chapter 37: Learned Helplessness

  1. The author said we are just like dogs. What did he mean by that?
  2. What is the explanatory style?
  3. How should one cope with the feelings of failure?

Chapter 38: Embodied Cognition

  1. What does it mean to think in metaphors?
  2. What is embodied cognition?

Chapter 39: The Anchoring Effect

  1. How do retail businesses use the anchoring effect?
  2. Why is anchoring so important to our way of thinking?
  3. Summarize the MIT experiment in 2006.
  4. If people are aware of the susceptibility to anchoring, then way do they overpay for everyday items?
  5. How can anchoring help you in your future negotiations?

Chapter 40: Attention

  1. What happens when you focus your attention on one thing?
  2. How is the information we retrieve from hearing similar to what we see?
  3. What is “inattentional blindness”?
  4. What is the problem with inattentional blindness?
  5. What is change blindness and how does this explain why two people can remember the same event happening differently?
  6. How do magicians exploit your perceptual blindness?
  7. Read the last paragraph of this chapter and explain in your own words how the brain processes memory.

Chapter 41: Self-Handicapping

  1. What does the author say about hypochondria and what people share in common with them?
  2. In your own words explain self-handicapping?
  3. Provide an example of self-handicapping from your life.
  4. Who is more honest with themselves, happy people or sad people?

Chapter 42: Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

  1. What is the Thomas Theorem?
  2. What is self-fulfilling prophecy?
  3. What is the labeling theory?

Chapter 43: The Moment

  1. What are the things that stay in our memories?
  2. According to Kahneman, how do people determine if they are happy or not?
  3. What is the problem with basing one’s happiness on whether or not s/he obtains his/her goal?

Chapter 44: Consistency Bias

  1. How can you tell if you suffer from consistency bias?
  2. How was consistency bias evidenced in Elaine Scharfe’s experiment?
  3. How would you define consistency bias?
  4. How can you tell if someone represses their consistency bias?

Chapter 45: The Representativeness Heuristic

  1. Why do people harbor prejudices?
  2. What is the representative heuristic?
  3. What did Kahneman and Tversky’s research reveal about human intuition?
  4. What is the conjunction fallacy?
  5. Is the representativeness heuristic all bad? Explain why.

Chapter 46: Expectation

  1. What is expectation?
  2. How does expectation effect a person?
  3. What has the greatest influence on you when determining which food or drink tastes better?

Chapter 47: The Illusion of Control

  1. What is the gambler’s fallacy, or the Monte Carlo fallacy?
  2. What is the illusion of control?
  3. Why is the illusion of control not a bad thing?

Chapter 48: The Fundamental Attribution Error

  1. What does it mean to “put on and take off social masks”?
  2. In your own words, explain the fundamental attribution error?
  3. Who is capable of committing evil acts?
  4. Which has a great influence on people’s behavior?
  5. When we don’t understand someone’s behavior we blame it on what?
  6. Summarize the events of the Zimbardo’s 1971 experiment.
  7. Give at least three examples of the attribution the fundamental attribution error.