Last Bits from Science of Fear

Daniel Gardner quotes Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, about why humans are so interested in each other:

"We are social mammals whose brains are highly specialized for thinking about others. Understanding what others are up to -- what they know and want, what they are doing and planning -- has been so crucial to our survival of our species that our brains have developed an obsession with all things human. We think about people and their intentions; talk about them; look for and remember them."

As I continue prepping this fall's class notes for history up at NWACC (ya'll sign up for Tuesday nights now), Gardner gifts me with a new quote on my favorite bane of history -- presentism.

"Simply put, history is an optical illusion: the past always appears more certain than it was, and that makes the future feel more uncertain -- and therefore frighten - than ever. The roots of this illusion like in what psychologist call 'hindsight bias'."

Couldn't say it better.

There is a ton of significant other theory and data within the book -- I highly recommend it to those teaching journalism or working the profession.