ISBN: 978-0-593-48935-2
Nils B Weidmann
University of Konstanz
Current public debates, not just about climate
change and corona restrictions, seem to become increasingly ‘irrational’. Why
does rationality seem to be in decline? Pinker takes the reader on a tour de
force through the different ingredients of rational thinking. We learn
about the foundations of logic and probability, how to process evidence to
update our beliefs, and how to make good decisions based on our knowledge. In
these parts of the book, Pinker covers a lot of ground, but manages to present
sometimes complex material in an accessible way. Each chapter uses intuitive
examples and illustrations that make the book an entertaining read, despite
material that is usually covered in statistical textbooks (which are probably
the opposite of what we call “entertaining reads”). How does all this help us
understand irrationality in current debates? In Chapter 10 Pinker finally turns
to this question – the ‘chapter most of you have been waiting for’. He
discusses a number of explanations such as motivated reasoning or the ‘myside
bias’, where reality and truth become negotiable and adjustable depending on
the political position they originate from. These, and several others, are
common fallacies in human thinking, and Pinker presents a number of scientific
findings attesting to this. Not surprisingly for a book with a psychological
focus, however, most of the research presented here takes an individualist
perspective, drawing on psychological experiments or surveys. Political
scientists will therefore ask how this affects democratic debates in the
aggregate, or even democracy as a whole. These are important questions, and as
Pinker’s book shows, there is some real cause for concern – but also a need for
more political science research.