In this episode of Cerebral, we will briefly explore how "Availability Heuristic" or "Availability Bias", a mental shortcut that we use to assign likelihoods of a particular event or behavior, leads to irrational fears and makes us vulnerable to exploitation through mass propaganda. 

Links: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_cascade

Bill Gates ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_outbreak_we_re_not_ready?language=en

Music: 

Bio Unit - Idiophone

For questions, concerns of feedback, write to [email protected]

In this episode of Cerebral, we explore the halo bias. 

Music: 

Ketsa - No-Light-Without-Darkness

Blear Moon - Learning from kids

Bio Unit - Chase

Links: 

https://www.thelawproject.com.au/insights/attractiveness-bias-in-the-legal-system

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_effect#Marketing

Expectations, Impressions, and Judgments of Physically Attractive Students: A Review https://www.jstor.org/stable/1170486

http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2012/09/little-evidence-of-health-benefits-from-organic-foods-study-finds.html

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.842

Feedback and questions? Write to [email protected]

In this episode of Cerebral, we unpack "thinking" and understand various components involved in it using the framework described by Jonathan Baron in his book Thinking and Deciding. 

Resources: 

Thinking and Deciding

Music: 

Audiobinger - Isolation

Keta - Coming Storm

Siddhartha Corsus - Ta Da! 

Questions, feedbacks or concerns? Write to [email protected]. 

In this episode of Cerebral, we will learn about negativity bias and explore how "Bad" seemingly triumphs "Good"  in various aspects of life.  

Music: 

Hoist, Our Young Guts - Andy Cohen 

Hare Krisha, Star of David - Siddhartha

Resources: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias

Bad is Stronger than Good: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1037/1089-2680.5.4.323

For questions, concerns and feedback, reach out at [email protected] 

In this episode of Cerebral, we explore Spotlight Effect and understand the psychological concepts like Egocentrism that cause it. 

Resources: 

Spotlight Effect

Theory of Mind

Egocentrism

Music: 

Prasad by Siddhartha Corsus

Hakuna Matata by BlueWednesday

Feedback, Questions or Concerns? Write to [email protected]

In this episode of Cerebral, we look into simulation heuristic and understand how it can trick us into becoming more anxious about the events in the real world. 

Resources:

Wikipedia Entry

Paper describing effects of simulation heuristic on anxiety

Music:

Ketsa

Siddhartha Corsus 

Lobo Loco Master Thief 

Feedback, questions or concerns? Write to [email protected]

In this episode, we look into attribution and understand the biases we fall prey to when using attribution in our lives. 

Resources: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attribution_(psychology)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attribution_bias

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor%E2%80%93observer_asymmetry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error

Meditation can reduce Attribution bias:  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/17470218.2016.1149498

Music: 

All music in this episode is by Ketsa downloaded from Free Music Archive

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa

Have questions, feedbacks or concerns? Reach out at [email protected]

Welcome to the Cerebral Podcast! The goal of this podcast is to enhance our thinking experience and better appreciate the nature of our minds.  I will share 5-15 minute episodes exploring topics from fields like cognitive and social psychology, heuristics and biases and even applicable techniques from the art of instrumental rationality. This podcast is also an experiment in understanding the limits of learning via podcasting. So instead of just making you passively listen, I will try to actively involve you in this journey by asking questions and occasionally assigning problems to reinforce the ideas as well as improve retention.