Need for cognition
en.wikipedia.org
Need for cognition
1–10 of 116 posts
Re: Need for cognition
#2Maybe this is something that academics and conspiracy theorists share?
Re: Need for cognition
#3Some people don't have this. A lot of people aren't very curious at all. Last night in Austin I saw a full self driving car from Cruise drive by with no driver while I was at a crosswalk. No one noticed or cared that a car just drove by with no one in it! It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen, and the people around me did not notice or care.
Re: Need for cognition
#4I clicked on "elaboration" and I feel myself about to go down the wiki rabbit hole... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaboration_likelihood_model
Re: Need for cognition
#5I haven't looked at the research yet, but this feels like it may have some correlation with a psychological trait called dogmatism, which is a defined as exhibiting great certainty about the correctness of one's views and an unwillingness to consider new evidence, or an unwillingness to adjust one's views in light of new evidence.
Obviously, they're not the same. NFC pertains more to the desire to go through the process of cognition, whereas dogmatism pertains more to defects of cognition (e.g. giving too much weight to our priors, being unwilling to update our priors).
But in the cases of both low NFC and high dogmatism, it feels like there's a type of intellectual laziness or cognitive immaturity at play. Almost like "It's too overwhelming for me to actually think this through, so I'm choosing to just not."
Similarly, both point to a lack of curiosity about the world or anything other that what we already know. (And, I would wager, both probably have a link to anti-intellectualism and authoritarianism, where we assume that whoever is in charge knows what they're doing better than the rest of us do.)
Re: Need for cognition
#6Too much thinking is like a heavy dish, it makes you sluggish and sleepy. Remember that everything that moves quickly and elegantly through the world does so without too much thought.
Re: Need for cognition
#7I haven't looked at the research yet, but this feels like it may have some correlation with a psychological trait called dogmatism, which is a defined as exhibiting great certainty about the correctness of one's views and an unwillingness to consider new evidence, or an unwillingness to adjust one's views in light of new evidence. Obviously, they're not the same. NFC pertains more to the desire to go through the proc…
I wonder if we need better role models for embracing uncertainty. If you're a low NFC person, there are a bunch of high status people that take public dogmatic stances, and demonstrate that you have high confidence in a worldview of sweeping generalizations without having to think too hard if only you adopt the Dogma. But I can't really think of role models where someone says "X, Y, Z are all complex and the thing that's valuable in my life is W, so it's healthy and intentional that I neither think about X, Y, Z or have an opinion on them" and that's socially validated or even celebrated.
Re: Need for cognition
#8Maybe this is something that academics and conspiracy theorists share?
A genuine desire to learn? Really? I don’t think so.
Re: Need for cognition
#9[deleted]
Re: Need for cognition
#10Some people don't have this. A lot of people aren't very curious at all. Last night in Austin I saw a full self driving car from Cruise drive by with no driver while I was at a crosswalk. No one noticed or cared that a car just drove by with no one in it! It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen, and the people around me did not notice or care.
People get used to that sort of thing quick. People once thought seeing a car was incredible, but when you see them all the time it doesn't register.