The Knowledge Illusion

By Steven Sloman & Philip Fernbach

Most people feel they understand the world with far greater detail, coherence, and depth than they really do.

• Illusion of explanatory depth (IoED) - we think we know more than we actually know.
• Human brain evolved for action, and diagnostic reasoning (how today's affairs may have been caused by yestarday's actions)
• We reason in two different ways: intuitively and deliberately
• Two ability for all humanity's greatest accomplishments -
  • Division of cognitive labour
  • Shared intentionality