Dysrationalia Explained
Dysrationalia is defined as the inability to think and behave rationally despite adequate intelligence.[1] It is a concept in educational psychology and is not a clinical disorder such as a thought disorder. Dysrationalia can be a resource to help explain why smart people fall for Ponzi schemes and other fraudulent encounters.
History
The concept of dysrationalia was first proposed by psychologist Keith Stanovich in the early 1990s. Stanovich originally classified dysrationalia as a learning disability and characterized it as a difficulty in belief formation, in assessing belief consistency, or in the determination of action to achieve one's goals.[2] However, special education researcher Kenneth Kavale noted that dysrationalia may be more aptly categorized as a thinking disorder, rather than a learning disability, because it does not have a direct impact upon academic performance.[3]
Psychologist Robert Sternberg argued that the construct of dysrationalia needed to be better conceptualized since it lacked a theoretical framework (explaining why people are dysrational and how they become this way) and operationalization (how dysrationalia could be measured).[4] [5] Sternberg also noted that the concept had the potential for misuse, as one may label another as dysrational simply because he or she does not agree with the other person's view: "I am afraid that Stanovich has fallen into a trap—that of labeling people as 'dysrational' who have beliefs that he does not accept. And therein lies frightening potential for misuse."[4]
Stanovich then replied to both Kavale[6] and Sternberg.[7] In response to Sternberg's concern about the construct's potential for misuse, Stanovich said that in that respect it is no different from other constructs such as intelligence, which is a construct that Sternberg himself uses.[7] Stanovich emphasized that use of the dysrationalia construct should be carefully based on rigorous standards of epistemic justification that do not depend solely on social agreement or disagreement and that refer to the process of justifying beliefs, not to the content of beliefs themselves.[7] Stanovich and his colleagues further developed the theoretical framework for, and operationalization of, dysrationalia in later books.
In 2002 Sternberg edited a book, Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid, in which the dysrationalia concept was extensively discussed.[8] In his 2009 book What Intelligence Tests Miss, Stanovich provided the detailed conceptualization that Sternberg called for in his earlier critique.[9] In that book, Stanovich showed that variation in rational thinking skills is surprisingly independent of intelligence. One implication of this finding is that dysrationalia should not be rare.
Mindware
Stanovich proposed two concepts related to dysrationalia: mindware gap and contaminated mindware.[10]
A mindware gap results from gaps in education and experience. This idea focuses on the lack or limitations within a person's knowledge in logic, probability theory, or scientific method when it comes to belief orientation or decision-making. Due to these gaps, intelligent people can make seemingly irrational decisions.
Contaminated mindware focuses on how intelligent people believe irrational ideologies, conspiracy theories, pseudosciences, and/or get-rich-quick schemes. A person can be led into such contaminated mindware through heuristic trust or fallacious reasoning.
Examples
One example that Stanovich related to dysrationalia centers on two former Illinois schoolteachers who pulled their children from the local public school in the area because discussions of the Holocaust are a part of the school's history curriculum. These parents, who are presumably competent due to their college education, believe that the Holocaust is a myth and should not be taught to their children. This is an example of a problem in belief formation regardless of intelligence.
A survey was given to Canadian Mensa club members on the topic of paranormal belief. Mensa members are provided membership strictly because of their high-IQ scores. The survey results showed that 44% of the members believed in astrology, 51% believed in biorhythms, and 56% believed in the existence of extraterrestrial visitors. Stanovich argued that these beliefs have no valid evidence and thus might have been an example of dysrationalia. Sternberg countered that "No one has yet conclusively proven any of these beliefs to be false", so endorsement of the beliefs should not be considered evidence of dysrationalia.[5] Stanovich's rebuttal to Sternberg explained that the purpose of the example was to question the epistemic rationality of the process by which people arrived at their unlikely conclusions, a process of evaluating the quality of arguments and evidence for and against each conclusion, not to assume irrationality based on the content of the conclusion alone.[7]
There are many examples of people who are famous because of their intelligence, but often display irrational behavior. Two examples cited by Stanovich were Martin Heidegger and William Crookes. Heidegger, a renowned philosopher, was also a Nazi apologist and "used the most specious of arguments to justify his beliefs". Crookes, a famous scientist who discovered the element thallium and was a Fellow of the Royal Society, "was repeatedly duped by spiritualist 'mediums' but never gave up his belief in spiritualism". Science journalist David Robson cited the example of Kary Mullis, an American biochemist and 1993 Nobel Prize winner who was also an astrology supporter and a climate change and HIV/AIDS denier.[11]
Further reading
- Book: Croskerry, Pat . 2015 . Clinical decision making . Barach . Paul R. . Jacobs . Jeffery P. . Lipshultz . Steven E. . Laussen . Peter C. . Pediatric and congenital cardiac care: quality improvement and patient safety . 2 . London; New York . . 397–409 . 9781447165651 . 900507959 . 10.1007/978-1-4471-6566-8_33 . https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285937160.
- Book: Facione . Peter A. . Gittens . Carol Ann . 2016 . 2011 . Think critically . 3rd . Boston . . 9780133909661 . 893099404.
- Book: Forsythe . Chris . Liao . Huafei . Trumbo . Michael . Cardona-Rivera . Rogelio E. . 2015 . Cognitive neuroscience of human systems: work and everyday life . Advances in human factors and ergonomics series . Boca Raton, FL . . 9781466570573 . 796750072.
- Book: Holyoak . Keith J. . Keith Holyoak . Morrison . Robert G. . 2012 . The Oxford handbook of thinking and reasoning . Oxford library of psychology . Oxford; New York . . 9780199734689 . 773023517 . 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199734689.001.0001.
- Book: Kahneman, Daniel . Daniel Kahneman . 2011 . Thinking, fast and slow . registration . New York . . 9780374275631 . 706020998.
- Book: Moshman, David . 2011 . 1999 . Adolescent rationality and development: cognition, morality, and identity . 3rd . New York . . 9781848728608 . 644680695.
- Moshman . David . October 2000 . Diversity in reasoning and rationality: metacognitive and developmental considerations . . 23 . 5 . 689–690 . 10.1017/S0140525X00483433. 22454319 .
- Book: Moshman, David . 2015 . Epistemic cognition and development: the psychology of justification and truth . New York . . 9781848725133 . 883648773.
- Book: Nisbett, Richard E. . Richard E. Nisbett . 2015 . Mindware: tools for smart thinking . New York . . 9780374112677 . 889164994.
- Over . David . February 2010 . Dysrationalia: intelligence without rationality . . 14 . 2 . 55–56 . 10.1016/j.tics.2009.11.006. 54287345 .
- Book: Preiss . David . Sternberg . Robert J. . Robert Sternberg . 2010 . Innovations in educational psychology: perspectives on learning, teaching, and human development . New York . . 9780826121622 . 316035759.
- Book: Robson, David G. . 2019 . The intelligence trap: why smart people make dumb mistakes . New York . . 9780393651423 . 1054001437.
- Book: Stanovich, Keith E. . Keith Stanovich . 2010 . Metarationality: good decision-making strategies are self-correcting . Decision making and rationality in the modern world . limited . Fundamentals of cognition series . Oxford; New York . . 143–162 . 9780195328127 . 318716093.
- Stanovich . Keith E. . Keith Stanovich . November 2009 . Rational and irrational thought: the thinking that IQ tests miss . . 20 . 6 . 34–39 . 10.1038/scientificamericanmind1109-34 .
- Book: Stanovich, Keith E. . Keith Stanovich . 2011 . Rationality and the reflective mind . New York . . 9780195341140 . 648932780 . 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195341140.001.0001.
- Book: Stanovich, Keith E. . Keith Stanovich . 2009 . What intelligence tests miss: the psychology of rational thought . New Haven . . 9780300123852 . 216936066 . registration .
- Stanovich . Keith E. . Keith Stanovich . January 2016 . The Comprehensive Assessment of Rational Thinking . Educational Psychologist . 51 . 1 . 23–34 . 10.1080/00461520.2015.1125787 . 147314725 .
- Book: Stanovich . Keith E. . Keith Stanovich . West . Richard F. . Toplak . Maggie E. . 2016 . The rationality quotient: toward a test of rational thinking . Cambridge, MA . . 9780262034845 . 946254542.
- Walton . Douglas N. . Douglas N. Walton . 2010 . Why fallacies appear to be better arguments than they are . Informal Logic . 30 . 2 . 159–184 . 10.22329/il.v30i2.2868. free .
External links
Notes and References
- Stanovich . Keith E. . October 1993 . Dysrationalia: a new specific learning disability . . 26 . 8 . 501–515 . 10.1177/002221949302600803 . 8245696. 220675184 .
- Stanovich . Keith E. . May 1994 . An exchange: reconceptualizing intelligence: dysrationalia as an intuition pump . . 23 . 4 . 11–22 . 10.3102/0013189X023004011 . 1176257. 144742980 .
- Kavale . Kenneth A. . October 1993 . How many learning disabilities are there? A commentary on Stanovich's 'Dysrationalia: a new specific learning disability' . . 26 . 8 . 520–523, 567; discussion 524–532 . 10.1177/002221949302600805 . 8245698. 32161548 .
- Sternberg . Robert J. . Robert Sternberg . May 1994 . What if the construct of dysrationalia were an example of itself? . . 23 . 4 . 22–27 . 10.3102/0013189X023004022 . 1176258. free .
- Sternberg . Robert J. . October 1993 . Would you rather take orders from Kirk or Spock? The relation between rational thinking and intelligence . . 26 . 8 . 516–519; discussion 524–532 . 10.1177/002221949302600804 . 8245697 . 10.1.1.1011.2122. 32469115 .
- Stanovich . Keith E. . October 1993 . It's practical to be rational . . 26 . 8 . 524–532 . 10.1177/002221949302600806. 143777227 .
- Stanovich . Keith E. . October 1994 . The evolving concept of rationality: a rejoinder to Sternberg . . 23 . 7 . 33 . 10.3102/0013189X023007033 . 1176937. 143370750 .
- Book: Sternberg . Robert J. . 2002 . Why smart people can be so stupid . registration . New Haven . . 0300090331 . 48098337 . j.ctt1npsdv.
- Book: Stanovich, Keith E. . 2009 . What intelligence tests miss: the psychology of rational thought . New Haven . . 9780300123852 . 216936066 . j.ctt1nq14j . registration .
- Stanovich . Keith E. . Toplak . Maggie E. . West . Richard F. . 2008 . The development of rational thought: a taxonomy of heuristics and biases . Advances in Child Development and Behavior . 36 . 251–285 . 10.1016/S0065-2407(08)00006-2 . 18808045. 9780123743176 .
- Robson . David G. . February 2019 . The stupidity trap . . 241 . 3218 . 30–33 . 10.1016/S0262-4079(19)30332-X. 2019NewSc.241...30R . 127495842 .