"This result confirms Kahneman’s prediction that priming research is a train wreck and readers of his book “Thinking Fast and Slow” should not consider the presented studies as scientific evidence that subtle cues in their environment can have strong effects on their behavior outside their awareness."
While I love reading about insights from behavioral economics I don't completely understand the internet obsession over psychological biases, mental models and other related topics in this cluster.
I'm often trying to understand how to actually apply this kind of knowledge into my daily life. I think Kahneman has himself said you can't protect yourself from it even if you are aware of the biases.
A lot of the interest in these topics seems disproportionate relative to their applicability.
Understanding how real-world systems function is something fascinating to me. So for me personally it's a natural extension of that curiosity. What are the rules that govern my own behavior? My operating system - if you will.
You might not be able to protect yourself from biases because that is just the way we are wired but you might be able to protect yourself from acting on the bias.
Example: You read a study and think: “Ah, this is not surprising. It is exactly what I have expected”. You can catch this thought and identify it as hindsight bias. And then think more deeply about the results without the bias.
Similar about mental models. They can guide your thinking about a specific problem. But this takes time and mental energy. So you will only apply them when it is worth the effort.
"This result confirms Kahneman’s prediction that priming research is a train wreck and readers of his book “Thinking Fast and Slow” should not consider the presented studies as scientific evidence that subtle cues in their environment can have strong effects on their behavior outside their awareness."
https://replicationindex.com/2017/02/02/reconstruction-of-a-...
https://retractionwatch.com/2017/02/20/placed-much-faith-und...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12030791