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Mini: Skeptical All Day · Why We Do What We Do

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Why we do what we do. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to Why we do what we do Mini. I'm your
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  Speaker 1: host Abraham and I'm your host Shane. We are a
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  Speaker 1: psychology podcast. We talk about the things that humans and
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  Speaker 1: non human animals do and we release these short form
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  Speaker 1: discussions where we just take a topic and we dive
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  Speaker 1: into it really quick. And that's called a mini and
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  Speaker 1: that's why we call it that. It's because it's small.
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  Speaker 1: That's what we're doing here. And sometimes when we do
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  Speaker 1: podcast episodes, we talk about things that people say and
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  Speaker 1: then I disagree with them and I say why they're wrong,
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  Speaker 1: And that's what we'll be doing today.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, this shows equal parts information
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  Speaker 2: and mythbusting. So you know, I think here's one of
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  Speaker 2: the ones where we're like, no, that was incorrect.
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  Speaker 3: So we're just going to dive in.
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  Speaker 1: But first I would just say really quick that if
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  Speaker 1: you do like what you hear today and you'd like
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  Speaker 1: to support us, and you haven't already, you can join
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  Speaker 1: us on Patreon get some benefits there, and that really
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  Speaker 1: helps us. You can also like subscribe, believe the rating
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  Speaker 1: and review and tell a friend I am slur in
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  Speaker 1: my words I'm trying.
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  Speaker 3: Not to tell. That's okay, So I'm going to try
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  Speaker 3: and be.
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  Speaker 1: More articulate moving forward. But yeah, let's go ahead and
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  Speaker 1: get into it. So let me set the stage because
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  Speaker 1: this was inspired by a thing that happened in a
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  Speaker 1: recent podcast I was listening to. Someone made a comment
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  Speaker 1: that they're like, well, you can't walk around being skeptical
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  Speaker 1: all day, and then they gave a long explanation as
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  Speaker 1: to why I am skeptical of that claim, and I
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  Speaker 1: think that they're wrong.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so let's go ahead and try to unpack what
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  Speaker 2: it means to be skeptical all day and whether you can. Now.
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  Speaker 2: In order to do that, first we have to understand
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  Speaker 2: what is meant by skeptic or being skeptical. Now, this
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  Speaker 2: means that we are thinking critically about things. Being skeptical
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  Speaker 2: means we're thinking critically about stuff, and that's pretty much it.
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  Speaker 2: It means being aware of your own biases and the
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  Speaker 2: kinds of tricks and obfuscations that are designed to try
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  Speaker 2: to manipulate you or make you think a certain way.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, skeptical like you question things when they seem like
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  Speaker 1: they don't make a lot of sense. That you question
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  Speaker 1: yourself to ensure that you have aggregated the most relevant
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  Speaker 1: information in the most relevant way. That's what it means.
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  Speaker 1: It means admitting you are wrong when you discover that
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  Speaker 1: you're wrong. It means being open to new information and
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  Speaker 1: incorporating that new information into your understanding of things. It
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  Speaker 1: is not actually that easy. It takes vigilance, It takes
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  Speaker 1: constant work, and it takes an orientation to the value
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  Speaker 1: of learning, I think to be able to embrace this
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  Speaker 1: and do it, and you just have to kind of
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  Speaker 1: stay on top of it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and to be fair. The comment on the episode,
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  Speaker 2: which the host elaborated on, alluded more to the idea
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  Speaker 2: of being skeptical as doubting everything that you hear. The
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  Speaker 2: concern was you can't walk around being skeptical, i e.
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  Speaker 2: Doubting everything that you encounter. Like basically the idea being like,
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  Speaker 2: if I see this thing, I'm questioning every single thing
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  Speaker 2: that I see all day every day thoroughly. Right, that's
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  Speaker 2: not really and that's kind of what what he's getting at.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe, yeah, it's like that we can't do that. And
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  Speaker 1: I mean, sure, if we put the actual definition aside
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  Speaker 1: and we accept that, like the actual definition definition of skeptic. Aside,
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  Speaker 1: and except that doubting is what they meant, I still
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  Speaker 1: kind of take umbrage with this statement, like with the
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  Speaker 1: with the claim that they're making here.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so first, I don't think this is a reality
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  Speaker 2: for anyone. For one thing, philosophically speaking, if you are
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  Speaker 2: doubting everything, then you are even doubting your doubting, So
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  Speaker 2: you're spending so much time doubting that you it's like
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  Speaker 2: it's kind of like exhibit on the on pit My Ride,
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  Speaker 2: except you're pimping your brain. And what you're doing is
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  Speaker 2: you're you're adding doubt to your doubts so that you
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  Speaker 2: can doubt while you doubt, And that seems like it's
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  Speaker 2: a little bit exhausting. You would be unable to do
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  Speaker 2: anything all day because you're doubting so much. In the
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  Speaker 2: nature of language by itself makes the position of doubting
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  Speaker 2: everything essentially impossible. Even still, this would not be a
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  Speaker 2: real experience anyone has had or will ever have, so
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  Speaker 2: the premise doesn't really work on that level or at all.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it'd be sort of like claiming you can't go
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  Speaker 1: around swiming underwater while holding your breath all day, I'm like, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: you die. Yeah, that does not a thing you can do,
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  Speaker 1: So the claim that you can't do it is kind
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  Speaker 1: of null.
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  Speaker 3: One.
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  Speaker 1: So let's go to a second position here. If you
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  Speaker 1: were to walk around doubting things, let's assume that what
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  Speaker 1: he meant is doubting. Of course, you're not going to
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  Speaker 1: doubt all things equally, right, there are things that you
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  Speaker 1: can readily observe and things that you know that you
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  Speaker 1: would not doubt even if you did want to doubt
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  Speaker 1: a bunch of things. If you see that a refrigerator
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  Speaker 1: is closed, you're not going to assume that it's actually
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  Speaker 1: open and then try and reach through the door that
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  Speaker 1: is closed. Right, So, even just walking around being doubtful,
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  Speaker 1: you're likely only engaging in like a relatively reasonable amount
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  Speaker 1: of doubt. Anyway, You're not going to doubt things that
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  Speaker 1: are like your actual, clear, observable experiences. That would be nonsense,
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  Speaker 1: That would be maladaptive to the point of you like
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  Speaker 1: needing to seek therapeutic help because you could not function
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  Speaker 1: about your day assuming that the things that you experience
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  Speaker 1: around you aren't really happening.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know one thing I do I will
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  Speaker 2: say is like the amount of doubting that we do,
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  Speaker 2: like sometimes it does get confirmed, Like I doubt that
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  Speaker 2: we would go through a whole episode without an ad
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  Speaker 2: And here we are, all right, you doubting debies. Let's
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  Speaker 2: go into the third part of this, right, So let's
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  Speaker 2: imagine that the commenter we're talking about doubting, right, how
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  Speaker 2: we can't doubt all day and all this stuff. So
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  Speaker 2: let's imagine the commenter even meant the definition of skepticism
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  Speaker 2: that we offered at the beginning of this, and that
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  Speaker 2: the suggestion is that you can't walk around being critical
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  Speaker 2: of things. Okay, to that, I would say that is
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  Speaker 2: how I go about my day. I know that Abraham
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  Speaker 2: goes about his day like that too. I'm pretty critical
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  Speaker 2: of everything, not in a really terrible way or like
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  Speaker 2: a mean way, or not a criticize it. We're thinking
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  Speaker 2: about criticizing. I'm thinking about stuff exactly. And so, like anything,
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  Speaker 2: it's a habit, it's a practice. You practice this skill
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  Speaker 2: over and over and over again, and it's a muscle
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  Speaker 2: you strengthen with repetition.
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  Speaker 3: Right, You do this often.
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  Speaker 2: And you and then it comes you become fluent in it.
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  Speaker 2: It's very natural for you to go Huh, I wonder
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  Speaker 2: why they chose that book cover, or huh, I wonder
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  Speaker 2: why that piece of music is arranged the way it is,
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  Speaker 2: Why didn't extend it another measure, or like it's one
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  Speaker 2: of those things where you're kind of already doing that
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  Speaker 2: when you're thinking about things.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're just thinking about things.
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  Speaker 1: And I would actually argue that even a lot, if
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  Speaker 1: not most people walk around being at least somewhat skeptical.
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  Speaker 1: The majority of the time. We don't see a tree
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  Speaker 1: move and assume it was a ghost. We don't see
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  Speaker 1: rainfall and assume it was caused by a wizard. We
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  Speaker 1: don't avoid getting into our cars because we don't avoid
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  Speaker 1: getting to our cars because we fear that a basilisk
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  Speaker 1: is waiting inside, ready to turn us to stone with
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  Speaker 1: its gaze. Like, we generally go about our days interacting
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  Speaker 1: as effectively as we can, which means we're being a
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  Speaker 1: skeptical and we're operating pretty effectively. So I think that
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  Speaker 1: not only is it the case that we can't, I
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  Speaker 1: not only think that it's wrong to say we can't
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  Speaker 1: go about our day just being skeptical all day. I think,
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  Speaker 1: for a lot of the day, a lot of us
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  Speaker 1: do just very naturally go about our day being at
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  Speaker 1: least a little bit skeptical of things all day long.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, what fantasy novel were you reading when you wrote
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  Speaker 2: that specific bullet point, because I feel like.
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  Speaker 1: I was thinking about Harry Potter. But yes, yes, but
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  Speaker 1: I was not actually reading Harry Potter. I was just
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  Speaker 1: thinking about it, just thinking about maybe it was maybe
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  Speaker 1: it's you die, or your pet not turned to stone,
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  Speaker 1: or you're petrified like you, I don't know, I remember
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  Speaker 1: what it does.
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  Speaker 2: But no, no you turn no, no, no, you're right, no,
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  Speaker 2: I it's then it was all very accurate. I was
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  Speaker 2: just like wizards some dosed and basilisks, like that's pretty accurate.
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  Speaker 3: So that feels good. I was thinking of Harry Potter.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, I saw a great interview the other day
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  Speaker 2: that did say that, like it like, why do they
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  Speaker 2: celebrate Christmas? Because if they celebrated Christmas, that would make
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  Speaker 2: them think that Jesus was this all powerful thing. But
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  Speaker 2: in the hot in the Wizarding World, Jesus would be
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  Speaker 2: a terrible wizard. Like you show up at Hogwarts and go,
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  Speaker 2: look here's I turned this water into wine, and everybody's like, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: get in line, that's potions one oh one.
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  Speaker 3: You know, yeah we did that. No, we did that
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  Speaker 3: in pre wizard school.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, come on, like you had. That was the test
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  Speaker 2: you had to pass to get in here. Anyway, Not
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  Speaker 2: only can you walk around being skeptical all day, we
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  Speaker 2: would argue that it's actually better to do this. It's
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  Speaker 2: better to think deeply about things and critically about things,
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  Speaker 2: and take an idea and turning around in your head
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  Speaker 2: and understanding all the angles of it. Like, that's a
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  Speaker 2: good thing. It's good to reflect on your own cognitive biases.
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  Speaker 2: It's good to reflect on your own cognition and like
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  Speaker 2: think about your thinking even, like it's good to deconstruct
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  Speaker 2: arguments that are meant to manipulate you. It's good to
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  Speaker 2: question the answer. And all of these are skills that
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  Speaker 2: benefit us and lead us to success. It leads us
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  Speaker 2: to be more emotionally intelligent people. It leads us to
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  Speaker 2: be more generally intelligent people. It leads us to be
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  Speaker 2: more compassionate people when we can think about circumstances and
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  Speaker 2: think about things in different ways. So, yes, we should
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  Speaker 2: be skeptical about things. We should be critical about things,
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  Speaker 2: we should think through problem solving all day because it
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  Speaker 2: makes us better thinkers and better humans in general.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, so, yeah, exactly that.
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  Speaker 1: Not only is it the argument being like, you can't
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  Speaker 1: walk around being skeptical all day like most people do
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  Speaker 1: a version of that already, some of us do it
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  Speaker 1: a lot more and all the time.
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  Speaker 3: And not only can you, but I think that we should. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I think that their argument is wrong. Agreed, And if
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  Speaker 1: you would like to disagree with me about that, listener,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: then you can email us at info atwwdwwdpodcast dot com.
• 9:23
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• 9:24
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• 9:29
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• 9:35
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  Speaker 3: But I think those are the things.
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  Speaker 1: Is there anything you would like to add or anything
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  Speaker 1: that I forgot before we wrap up this mini in
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  Speaker 1: an appropriate amount of time.
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  Speaker 2: I think that covers it. I cannot believe we did
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  Speaker 2: an episode in ten minutes.
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  Speaker 3: That was amazing.
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  Speaker 1: Go forth and be skeptical everybody. Why we do what
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  Speaker 1: we do?
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  Speaker 3: Mini is out.
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  Speaker 1: HI.
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  Speaker 3: You've been listening to Why We Do What We Do?
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  Speaker 2: You can learn more about this and other episodes by
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: going to WWD WWD podcast dot com. Thanks for listening,
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  Speaker 2: and we hope you have an awesome day