Wellness + Wisdom | Episode 698
How does the pro-blame bias influence our thinking and judgment?
Cory Clark, Behavioral Scientist, joins Josh Trent on the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast, episode 698, to unpack why we shouldn't fully trust science, how victim mentality creates a dysfunctional dynamic, the dangers of social media-fueled tribalism, and how self-awareness, courage, and meaningful conflict can transform the way we create an honest connection with others in today’s world.
“When you have people who identify strongly with a political in-group on the left or right, they start to become very afraid of contradicting beliefs that are strongly held by their in-group based on the fear of being ostracized. Our brains evolved to be averse, trying to avoid anything that could get us ostracized from our social group. So we're giving so much power to the extremists within our own group when most of the time, they're not the people to be listening to.” – Cory Clark
In This Episode, Cory Clark Uncovers:
[01:30] Should You Trust Science?
- Cory Clark
- How she helps scientists resolve disagreements.
- Why AI is biased according to how it's trained.
- We shouldn't trust science completely.
- Why she's dedicated to making scientists more trustworthy.
[06:25] The Source of Self-Righteousness
- 096 Emotional Resilience, Nootropics & Outsmarting The Modern World – Daniel Schmachtenberger
- What people want to believe is true correlates to what they actually believe is true.
- Why sometimes we believe something's true because we're scared of something.
- Self-righteousness is a reaction to someone attacking our moral beliefs.
[10:45] What's Behind Victim Mentality
- Why many traditions are harmful.
- The reason why most people feel like a victim.
- How convincing other people that we've been mistreated can provide us with compensation.
- Why living in large anonymous societies makes victimhood easier.
- How victim mentality justifies bad behavior towards another person who harmed the victim.
- Why there is a cost of being in the victim mentality.
[16:30] The Connection Between Affluence + Victimhood
- How 100 years ago people didn't have the conditions to be in victimhood.
- Why many people think they deserve more, even though they have everything they need.
- How the meaning of the word “harm” has increasingly become more trivial.
[20:15] Victimhood Only Provides Short-Term Advantage
- 678 Dr. Peter McCullough | Pandemic Lessons Learned: World-Famous Medical Doctor Shares Health Freedom Through Scientific Data, Analysis + Courageous Discourse
- 503 Paul Levy | Wetiko: Break Free From Collective Mass Psychosis
- The short-term benefits of victimhood.
- Why people don't want to interact with victims because there is an imbalance of reciprocity.
- How getting what we want right now might not be what we want in the long run.
- People who feel like victims fall deeper into victimhood if they don't get what they want.
[27:40] The Dangers of Social Media
- King, Warrior, Magician, Lover by Douglas Gillette + Robert Moore
- How social media provides people with easy-to-get attention.
- Why social media fuels the victim mentality.
- How people are being monetized by tribalism.
[34:40] Gender Dysphoria
- Why some people go all in on an ideology to signal their commitment to the group.
- How parents use their children to get status for themselves.
- Why people are afraid to speak up when their in-group is doing something harmful.
- How we are still afraid of being ostracised.
- Why we give too much power to the extremists of the group.
[40:05] We Lost The Ability To Have a Conflict
- Technology and lifestyle evolve much faster than the human body and brain.
- Why during conflict people judge others in the group.
- How kindness is essential in navigating disagreement.
- Why some people are more capable of making resolutions than others.
- How information that challenges us can make us have a physiological reaction.
[48:35] Do You Really Want to Change?
- How Just trained his nervous system to show up emotionally regulated for his family.
- Why being disliked by others teaches us something about ourselves.
- How some people perceive their own behavioral change as undesirable.
- Why Cory is aware that data doesn't equal facts.
[54:40] Can Science Be Humanized?
- How science is being humanized through social media.
- Why peer reviews don't allow any subjective opinions.
- How science can help justify our intuition.
- Why scientists often dismiss intuition when it's not justifiable.
[59:55] Pro-Blame Bias
- Why people have a bias towards attributing responsibility for negative results.
- How negative bias towards morally culpable agents serves to protect us.
- Pro-Blame Bias: The Don Corleone Principle
- Why most people have the tendency to follow the Don Corleone Principle.
- Harm Hypervigilance in Public Reactions to Scientific Evidence
- How people censor themselves based on fear.
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Power Quotes From The Show
Pro-Blame Bias
“People have this tendency more in general where they think bad things are going to happen more than they probably will and they think good things are less likely to happen. So they have this bias toward assuming bad things.” – Cory Clark
The Downside of Victimhood
“There are short-term benefits to victimhood. So if you signal your victimhood, I might give you some money. I might not challenge you. I might let you get away with little things here and there. However, people, in general, don't want to have permanent relationships with people who take and don't give because anytime someone is appealing to someone else for resources, they are now taking advantage of that other person. They've created an imbalance between themselves and that person.” – Cory Clark
Self-Censorship
“Many people are self-censoring their own beliefs and based on an unwarranted fear of what might happen to them if they were to be honest and speak what they truly think openly around people who might disagree with them. If everybody had more courage to speak their truth, we could radically change.” – Cory Clark
Links From Today's Show
- Cory Clark
- 096 Emotional Resilience, Nootropics & Outsmarting The Modern World – Daniel Schmachtenberger
- 678 Dr. Peter McCullough | Pandemic Lessons Learned: World-Famous Medical Doctor Shares Health Freedom Through Scientific Data, Analysis + Courageous Discourse
- 503 Paul Levy | Wetiko: Break Free From Collective Mass Psychosis
- King, Warrior, Magician, Lover by Douglas Gillette + Robert Moore
- Pro-Blame Bias: The Don Corleone Principle
- Harm Hypervigilance in Public Reactions to Scientific Evidence
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About Cory Clark
Cory Clark is a Behavioral Scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her PhD in Social and Personality Psychology and Quantitative Methods from the University of California, Irvine in 2014.
Currently, she is a Visiting Scholar in Management at the Wharton School and the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Adversarial Collaboration Project at the School of Arts and Sciences.
Although she has studied many topics in moral and political psychology, these days, she is particularly interested in the social and psychological impediments to truth discovery.
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5 Topics In Psychology That's Become Politically Incorrect – Dr Cory Clark
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