Are you going to the movies tonight or not, that new red or blue jacket, and another job or are you waiting a while? The eternal skeptic mainly gets in the way. or not?
A study conducted by Eric Racine of Erasmus University showed that the higher a person scores on a frequency scale, the less satisfied they are with their lives. But researchers Jana Maria Hohensbein and Iris Schneider come to a different conclusion in their new study: Skeptics place two important fallacies far below their more determined peers.
First, they suffer less than confirmation bias. That is, they place less value on information that confirms their ideas. For example, the researchers asked the participants what question they would ask a person to find out if they were introverted or extroverted. Before that, they thought this person would be an extrovert.
They can choose from the questions: “Do you like being alone at home?” or “Do you like going to parties?” Most people choose the second question, but in doing so they give confirmation bias. Skeptics choose the first, because they are more likely to question their ideas. This is an important feature, because confirmation bias Common and prevents us from thinking rationally.
Second, skeptics make fewer “functional attribution errors.” That is, they are less likely to attribute failures or successes to the person rather than the context. If someone slips, they will not think: what a fool, but: it must be slippery. Being ambivalent must therefore be embraced, says Hohnsbehn. “It can give us a much-needed pause and signal that things are complicated. And that we need more time to really reflect on our decision.”
Sources): HLN
