The Uses of Delusion: Why It’s Not Always Rational to Be Rational - Livestream

Although reason and rationality are our friends in almost all contexts, in some cases people are better off putting reason aside. In a number of very important situations, we benefit by not seeing the world as it is, and by not behaving like logic-driven machines. Sometimes we know we aren’t making sense, and yet we are compelled to act against reason; in other cases, our delusions are so much a part of normal human experience that we are unaware of them. As intelligent as we are, much of what has helped humans succeed as a species is not our prodigious brain power but something much more basic.

In behavioral scientist Stuart Vyse’s new book, THE USES OF DELUSION: Why It’s Not Always Rational to be Rational  he looks at the aspects of human nature that are not altogether rational but, nonetheless, help us achieve our social and personal goals.

Speaker: Stuart Vyse, Author