People are irrational largely because they’re stupid. I have yet to be convinced that “rationality” is something entirely distinct from intelligence itself, such that you can appeal to someone to become significantly more “rational” without simultaneously effecting the seemingly tougher feat of boosting IQ a standard deviation or so.
For some evidence to the contrary (and the beginnings of a theory about when cognitive ability will correlate with rationality and when it won’t) try this:
Stanovich, K. E, & West. R. F. (2008). On the relative independence of thinking biases and cognitive ability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 672-695. JPSP08.pdf
People are irrational largely because they’re stupid. I have yet to be convinced that “rationality” is something entirely distinct from intelligence itself, such that you can appeal to someone to become significantly more “rational” without simultaneously effecting the seemingly tougher feat of boosting IQ a standard deviation or so.
For some evidence to the contrary (and the beginnings of a theory about when cognitive ability will correlate with rationality and when it won’t) try this:
Stanovich, K. E, & West. R. F. (2008). On the relative independence of thinking biases and cognitive ability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 672-695. JPSP08.pdf
(More here.)