It Shouldn't Have Surprised Me

A Yale University Law Professor named Dan Kahan wrote a research paper entitled "Motivated Numeracy and Enlightened Self-Government". You can tell he's smart because the title doesn't mean a damn thing to me. It should be titled "Emotion Fucks Up Your Math Skills". Kahan found that people who are generally good at math often cannot solve a simple math problem when it goes against their beliefs. We would like to think we are rationale and can look at issues without emotion and come to a logical Mr. Spock solution. It turns out we look at the data and determine what it means based on what we want to believe.

People who did not agree with President Obama's economic policy were shown a chart which accurately indicated that non farm employment had gone up over the past year about one million jobs. They were asked if the number of jobs had gone down, stayed the same or had gone up. Many, looking at a graph with a line going up stated the number of jobs had gone down. If they were asked to write a few sentences about themselves to make them feel good before reviewing the graph a significant number changed their answer.

A group was shown a table of numbers indcating if a skin cream reduced rashes and some people were given a different table using the same numbers about whether banning citizens from concealed carry handguns reduced crime. He found that when the numbers conflicted with their beliefs on handguns they couldn't do the math right. They could get the right answer when the same numbers were used for skin cream. More and better facts do not turn low information voters into better equipped citizens. It appears based on this study to make them more committed to their misconceptions.

What is my take on this? All of us see with our eyes, think with our brains and interpret with our hearts. Carol and I have been married almost 40 years and dated for over 3 years prior to getting married. When I look at her my heart still sees that beautiful 16 year old girl I fell in love with so long ago. My eyes and my brain know the reality is now different but my heart doesn't care. So when rational thought meets emotion we shouldn't be surprised when emotion wins. Now if you want a real battle throw lust in. When the head in your pants gets to telling the brain what to think, the eyes what to see and the heart what to long for- well then all bets are off. You can't find your car when it is the only one in the parking lot.