WEBVTT - The Gullibility Episode 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.920 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:13.640 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:17.200 Chuck and we're flying solo again, which means we hopefully 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:22.000 won't crash this joint. And this is stuff. That's right, 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:26.640 that's right. How are you man? You're still sick? Huh? 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:28.920 Yeah, I mean, and this is kind of I mean, 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:30.760 I don't like playing it this close, but it's kind 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:33.839 of fun to be a little more current with like 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:35.680 listener mails and updates and stuff. 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:37.919 Yeah, it keeps us on the edge where we need 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:38.159 to be. 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:40.120 Yeah. So this will be out on Tuesday, I guess. 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:42.199 And in real time, this is the day after the 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:44.919 automat Oyster stewed debacle. 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:48.440 I don't know if it was a debacle that turned 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:49.400 out to be a pretty good. 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:51.400 App and Aaron Cooper already came through. 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:53.159 Oh good, I haven't seen it yet. 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.680 Yeah, it's funny. I'm okay. You know, things subside in 0:00:57.720 --> 0:00:59.639 the early afternoon, so I'm actually feeling a little better 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:01.560 than it was like twenty minutes ago even. 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:02.720 But yeah, it's crazy. 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:04.080 Yeah, I just I gotta go to the doctor and 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.000 just get it over with, you do. 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.559 I heard that there's a really bad neurovirus going around, 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:13.800 and that's gotta be what you got man going around 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.080 Mexico City, going around the world. 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:20.520 Oh really, yeah, Mexico City is included. This feels bacterial 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:21.840 diverticulitis related. 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:24.800 Oh that's true. I forgot you got that. Yeah, well, 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:27.440 there's still a neurovirus going around, so don't catch that too. 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.280 I'll try, but I'm hanging in there. I am working 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.400 on less than three hundred calories a day for five 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:38.160 days now, so I am a shell of a human. 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.039 You're gonna look lean and mean, have you been doing 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:41.640 push ups? 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:44.160 I can't do one push up right now, there's no way. 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:48.520 Well, Chuck, I guess it's entirely possible since I haven't 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:52.520 seen you, I've just you know, been talking to you. Yeah, 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.880 while we record, I have no idea whether you're actually 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:58.320 sick or not. And it's entirely possible that you're fooling 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:02.040 me right now. Oh and if you are, I would 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.840 argue that doesn't make me gullible because I generally believe 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:10.640 you're trustworthy. There's no reason to believe that you're not sick. 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:14.360 So really, you'd just be a shameful, dirty liar, and 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:17.240 I would be the hero in this situation. 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:22.640 That's right. This is on gullibility and this you know, 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:25.160 we were just talking offline that there are I think 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.639 a hundred different ways to approach this kind of topic, 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:32.120 and sometimes that's like freeing, and sometimes that's really frustrating, 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:35.520 and I think this one was a little frustrating. Lvia 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:38.200 put together a great article, I think, but it's just 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:40.680 a hard one. When I pitched it to her, I 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:43.040 was like, you know what I feel like, especially here 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:47.760 in America, we're at peak gullibility as a nation, and 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:49.920 like I just wondered, like, is there any science of that, 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:52.359 or like there are people more gullible than others? And 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.680 can science be gullible? And this is what we came 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:55.960 up with. 0:02:56.720 --> 0:03:00.400 Yeah, Interestingly, yes, science can be gullible. On the other hand, 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:05.040 you could argue that Americans aren't more gullible than usual, 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.959 that there's actually just different factors involved that make people 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:13.000 want to believe things. Maybe it's a it's it's weird. 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:14.799 I think one of the reasons why it's so hard 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.560 to wrap our head around is social psychologists are still 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:20.040 trying to wrap their head around it. 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:20.480 Totally. 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.680 And and you know what happens when social psychologists get 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:24.520 a hold of something. 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:26.359 Oh yeah, it's an oyster stew party. 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:28.919 It's a little unsteady as they figure it out. That's right, 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:32.480 it's an oyster stew party. So I think it's not 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:34.640 it's not us, as what I'm trying to say. And you, 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:37.200 dear listener, if you're like, what is going on, it's 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:39.960 not you either. It's social psychology. 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.440 That's right. I guess we can start by talking about 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:44.120 I mean, we're going to talk about a different a 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:45.960 lot of different people, a lot of different people that 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:48.600 study this kind of stuff, a lot of different studies, 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:52.280 some of which make more sense than others. But this guy, 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:55.840 Stephen green Span, is an author. He wrote a book. 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.880 He wrote the book on it, Annals of Gullibility Colon 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:02.480 Why we are duped and how to avoid it. And 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:05.800 one sort of important thing he does upfront is say, hey, 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:10.280 there's a difference between credulity and gullibility. Credulity is if 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:13.320 you know you'll believe something just without looking at all 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:17.800 the evidence, and gullibility means you have an active response 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:20.400 to perhaps being conn. 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:23.479 I take issue with us right out of the gate. 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:24.320 I kind of think too. 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:27.880 I think that's a terrible distinction because I think you 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.480 can totally fall for something and be duped. Yeah, and 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:34.880 you be the only person who knew that. Who knows it. 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:38.000 You know, somebody could say something that duped you, and 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.919 they don't stop and focus to get like that that 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:44.080 that question of whether they duped you or not answered. 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:46.760 They just keep going on. But you know you've been duped. 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.120 You don't have to respond to a Nigerian prints email 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.560 or send somebody a bunch of Walmart cards to get 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:56.720 out of some random federal case that's against you. To 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:02.039 have been gullible, you just have to believe, and usually 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:06.200 in the absence of any kind of supporting evidence, and 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:10.960 sometimes in the presence of contradictory evidence. That's gollibility in 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:17.200 my in my understanding. Thanks You're you're believing something without 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:21.400 bothering to go check it out, and that to me 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:23.040 is the baseline of gollibility. 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:26.000 I totally agree. I thought that definition was really weird, 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:28.000 and I'm glad both are in here though, because sometimes 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.880 it's a nice contrast. But along the lines of what 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:35.800 you were saying, there's a group of researchers social psychologists 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:38.960 from McQuary University. There can be a lot of Aussie's 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:39.240 in this. 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:42.880 You can say that name better than that McQuary. 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.120 Oh like Ausie style, Yeah, McQuary. 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.560 Although anytime you do that you sound like Murray from 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:52.040 Flight to the Concord. 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:56.880 Murray present Alessandra k Tenise. 0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:59.320 Maybe that's what I'm going to find it. 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:00.839 Much in the way you and I would, and I 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:02.599 think a lot of people would, which is simply the 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:05.120 propensity to accept a false premise in the presence of 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:11.719 un trustworthy clues. That's it. That's it. You don't have 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:12.360 to act on it. 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.960 No, you could just believe and no one in the 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:19.160 world could know besides you that you believed, and you're 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.279 still gulible in that sense. The thing that I really 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.479 stood out to me that we'll talk about a lot more, though, 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:27.840 is you could make a really good case that people 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:32.279 aren't as gullible as other people think they are. And 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:34.719 I found that kind of reassuring. We'll talk about that later, 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:37.680 but I don't want anybody to get the impression that 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.280 we're just like, Yep, people are generally stupid, yeah, and 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.000 here's how they fall for stupid stuff now and you're 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.479 probably stupid too. That's not actually what the science of 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:47.880 gollibility is turned up. 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:50.160 No, And there's a lot of factors, And this is 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:52.200 where I think Greenspan did kind of hit on something 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:57.279 his four factors of gullibility. Situational like if there's a 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.280 lot of if everyone else is doing it, and there's 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:01.839 a lot of social pre sure, like all the bros 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:05.039 are investing in the same cryptocurrency and it's at a 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:06.400 great price, and you're like, oh man, I got to 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:07.760 get in there. All the guys are right, you know, 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.440 everyone's in on that. So there's social pressure where you 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:15.920 can fall for something. Cognitive issues like well, as we'll 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:18.920 get to later with you know, our senior friends. Sometimes 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:22.200 there's like legit brain cognitive issues that's a different thing 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:26.240 than this. But this is just lacking expertise, and you know, 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.520 you can't evaluate what you're being told because you're just 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.200 not I don't want to say smart enough, you're just 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:33.720 not an expert in whatever that is. 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:36.400 Yeah, you're not informed enough in that particular thing. 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:37.560 Yeah, what else. 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:40.720 Personality is another one. If you're impulsive, this is a 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:44.120 big one, big one. If you're lowing curiosity and you're like, 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:46.560 I don't care, Just tell me what difference. I'm too 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:49.320 lazy to go figure it out myself. Uh huh, I 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.760 got better things to do than think. Or if you 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:55.280 have a high need for independence, And this struck me 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.600 quite a bit because if you were, if you're independence minded, 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:04.680 you don't need smarty pants, pencil neck college boys telling 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:08.120 you what's right or what's wrong, or what's true or 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:11.760 what's false. You can figure it out yourself. And those 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:14.680 people are actually a high risk of being duped, which 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.760 is really surprising, but if you stop and think about it, 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.080 it makes total sense. They're overconfident and that's a huge 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:22.880 factor in being gullible. 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:26.400 Yeah, I totally think it makes sense, you know, because 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:27.480 it happened to his cousin. 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:29.640 That's right. 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.480 Emotion can play a big factor in a lot of ways, 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:36.280 and we'll talk about some of those with some studies 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:40.400 later on, but one way is, like, let's say we're 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:42.480 specifically talking about being conned. If it gives you a 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:46.280 positive feeling, whether it's a somebody catfishing you and making 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:50.439 you feel loved, or you know, some sort of financial 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:52.480 thing that you think might provide for your long term 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:56.760 security or like, man, no one else knows about the 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:58.760 steal but me, I'm so smart for getting in on 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:01.840 the ground floor here that kind of thing. 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:06.000 Right, and as strangely ironically, almost as if he did 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:08.760 it on purpose, because it supports everything he wrote about. 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:13.040 Stephen Greenspan, the author of that book about golibility, he 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:16.000 finished his book and shortly afterward he was informed by 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:18.680 I guess his stockbroker that he had lost a bunch 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:22.960 of a bunch of money by investing in Bernie Madoff's contest. 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:24.440 Scheme with the ironies. Huh. 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:26.640 So he was like, even the guy that researched this 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.160 and wrote the book on golibility can fall for it. 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:33.080 That's a really great little tidbit. Yeah, but I think 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:38.480 it also goes to show just how specific golibility is, 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:42.000 because I don't get the impression that Stephen Greenspan was like, 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:44.679 this madeoff guy is making a lot of really great 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:48.080 points and this is incredibly high risk, but I'm going 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:50.080 to go along with it anyway, Like he went through 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:52.640 a stockbroker and everything. So, yeah, there's only a certain 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:53.679 amount of golibility. 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:54.160 It's just. 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:59.319 Bernie Madoff is like shorthand for fooling people, you know 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:03.080 what I mean, not to pick on Stephen green Span 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:04.040 or anything like that. 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.600 Now I feel very bad for him despite his poor definition. 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:12.960 Right. So some other people have said, well, we really 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:15.079 want to show off as social psychologists, we're going to 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:19.280 create a gibility scale, and in fact, Alessandra to Nie 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:23.240 from Macquarie University, I'm not even gonna try that one. 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:30.480 But it's Australian for university. Sorry, Australians. There's this beer 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:33.960 called Fosters that here in America we think you drink 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:38.280 a lot of. And in America the ad campaign says Fosters, 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:40.280 it's Australian for beer. 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.440 I love that you barely use an accent. You just 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:46.280 say it seriously and that gets the point across. 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:49.160 It makes people pay attention. 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:50.960 Australian for beer. 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:54.640 That's the best I can do. That's how I think 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:55.640 Australians talk. 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:00.240 Uh yeah. So this gullibility scale was self report did 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:05.280 basically like do you self reported, meaning do you think 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:07.760 others do you perceive yourself as gullible? And do you 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:11.800 think others perceive you as gullible? And then they you know, 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.319 they filled in with some other questions like how persuadable 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:16.800 are you? And stuff like that, and it actually for 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:19.560 a self reported study, which you know a lot of 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.840 those can be tough. This seemed to work out pretty 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:25.080 good for them, don't you think it did? 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:28.679 Because they backed it up. They I can't remember what 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:32.640 it's called, but they tested the validity. They tested the 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:37.520 validity of this self reporting panel and found that the 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:42.360 people who reported themselves or scored the highest on gullibility 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:45.600 on this test were more likely to click a link 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.760 on a phishing email than people who scored low. Right, 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.400 So it seems like a valid test. And one of 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:53.160 the things I went and looked at up Chuck, and 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:55.360 one of the questions wasn't even a question. It was 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:59.080 you are very persuadable, And the only option to check 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:02.200 was yes, Ah, what I'm kidding? 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:05.199 Oh man, this is so upciting. 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:08.640 That's all right, You're not at one hundred percent at all. 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:10.440 I didn't think you would take advantage of this today. 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:14.880 It was more of the joke. I wasn't trying to 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:17.480 take advantage of you, although I realize now that I didn't. 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:22.440 It's okay. All for the show. On that scale, they 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.839 found some traits that were common among those that scored 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:29.480 high in gullibility. Social intelligence was one of them that'll 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:33.719 keep coming back over and over. Vulnerability, emotionality, which we've 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:36.240 talked about a little bit, a weak sense of self 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.640 which also comes up in different ways. I think you 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:43.040 found an article about how parents can wreck kids by 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:45.360 not giving them self confidence, right, and they'll end up gible. 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:49.160 Yeah, pretty much, and depending on And it doesn't even 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:51.240 have to be like you're such a stupid kid every day. 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:53.960 It can just be things like where your opinion is 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:57.040 not really heard or validated, or just all sorts of 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:59.800 little missteps that parents can make that make parenting a 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:03.600 lit nightmare you can carry on as an adult. And 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:05.959 it can make you doubt your own opinion, so you're 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.880 not gonna speak up. It can make you be afraid 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:12.000 of looking stupid, so you don't ask questions because you 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:14.760 don't want to seem like I don't I didn't immediately 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:16.400 get it, so I'm gonna look dumb if I ask 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.080 these questions. There's like it just sets you up for 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:23.600 being more likely to be a victim of being duped 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.040 than somebody who has a lot of confidence. 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.280 Yeah, I have a good friend who had a pretty 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:34.120 bad stepfather, and the abuse in this situation was exclusively 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.599 he made him feel stupid at every opportunity. 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:39.760 That is so wrong, Like I should be in jail. 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:44.920 He's passed on now. But it's I can't think of 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:46.839 any I mean, there are all kinds of things that 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:50.560 are worse, obviously, but something so damaging for such a 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:54.080 small person to do that to a child. Yeah, and 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:56.720 literally like oh you think so, like you know, just 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:58.319 that's how he was talked to it his whole life 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:02.080 growing up. It's awful. That is rough and he's super gullible. 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:03.760 Oh is he really? 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:04.800 No? Actually, I don't know. 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:08.120 Oh, you got me back there. You should just do 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:10.160 that to one another, like every d or too. 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:12.560 One thing we should mention though, because this pops up 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:14.760 a couple of times and I think it's super fascinating. 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:17.680 Is another trait they found on the gullibility scale if 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:22.280 you're very gullible, was belief in paranormal activity. Yeah, just 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:23.040 park it right there. 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:26.800 But I guess that depends on whether paranormal activity is 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:27.320 real or not. 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:28.720 You know, well, I guess so. 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.840 I mean that's described from a point of view where 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:36.560 you're just like that's all fake anyway. So yeah, duh. 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.720 One of the things about social intelligence that's worth pointing out. 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:44.760 So that's basically a package that you can have. Some 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.040 people are much better at it than others, but basically 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.920 everyone alive in a society has some degree or other 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.360 of this package of skills that forms social intelligence, Like 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.680 whether or not you're good at conversation, whether you are 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:02.480 good at effective listening, what your knowledge of like social 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:06.200 roles and social scripts are, and then awareness of like 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:09.160 what make other people tick, and then what people think 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:11.120 of you. And you put all this together, and if 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:14.480 you have like high emotional or social intelligence, you're going 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:19.440 to be able to navigate interactions with other people much 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.720 better than somebody with low intelligence. Part of that is 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.360 not getting scanned by somebody by being able to be like, 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:27.920 you're a scammer and I'm not going to send you 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:29.240 a Walmart gift card now. 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.000 Yeah, And it's a trade I think that you can't 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:34.920 necessarily teach, but is really beneficial to have as a human. 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:38.200 Yeah. I admire people with high social intelligence because it's 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:42.720 not just you know, being able to spot a scammer, 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:45.200 it's being able to see the best in other people, 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:46.880 and I think to bring out the best in other 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:48.720 people and let them bring out the best in you. 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:52.600 And that's just it's maybe in another life, maybe in 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:53.440 the next lifetime. 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:57.760 Oh buddy, I think you're great. They did another study 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:02.360 at the University of Leicester where they found that childhood 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:05.320 traumas can really affect you later in life in terms 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:08.480 of gullibility, like any kind of bullying, death of a 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:11.600 family member or something like that. It leads you more 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:16.600 susceptible to fall for tricks later in life. And apparently 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:19.120 they say it could be because that kind of trauma 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:21.720 just makes it hard to trust your own judgments and 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:24.800 you know, I guess everyone else's intent. 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.840 For sure, and then some people because it's actually kind 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:30.840 of counterintuitive if you think if you've gone through the 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:33.280 school of hard knocks, I think is the way that 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:35.560 the study put it. Yeah, you could think that they'd 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:40.000 come out like much more world wary and like suspicious 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:41.840 of people, and so they'd be less likely to fall 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.680 first game. But no, instead, like you said, they just 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:47.040 they question their own judgment for having gone through what 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:47.720 they went through. 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:48.640 So that's terrible. 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:52.560 It is, It is very terrible. Childhood is just fraught. 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:54.560 You know, it really is. 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.080 It's a wonder any of us can function in any 0:16:57.240 --> 0:16:58.240 like real way. 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.280 Oh I know. I mean we're pretty good parents, but 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:04.080 I often think like, how are we messing her up? 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:06.240 Because I know we are in some way. 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:09.120 Yep, I mean I can't I can't imagine, Like that's 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:10.959 got to just keep you up at nights sometimes if 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:13.160 you think about it too much. You know, I sleep 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:16.600 pretty good good you just wake up to throw up 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:17.160 every hour. 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:20.160 Yeah, I think, just try to limit that stuff as 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:22.800 a parent, Like, there's you can't be perfect. I mean, 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:24.960 my brother is a perfect parent, but there's only there's 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.920 only one. 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:28.600 Scott. 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:31.440 Another thing I thought was interesting, and this makes total sense, 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:34.520 is if you rely on your intuition a lot, you're 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:37.600 a lot more vulnerable, vulnerable to being duped by something, 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:41.560 just like you know, some people have a good gut, 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:43.600 and some people think they have a good gut but 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:44.040 do not. 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:48.040 Yes. Another one that really stood out to me though 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:50.560 that this this I would not have predicted, is the 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:53.800 more cynical you are. Studies have found like this that 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:58.080 the likelier you are to be gullible or duped. And 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:02.359 the reason why actually makes time sense. Again, if you're cynical, 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.159 you think you've got everything figured out, like you're just 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:07.800 you think the world sucks and everybody's trying to take 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:10.720 advantage of you, and the government's constantly screwing you over, 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.800 and everyone's going to try to get an angle on you. 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:19.119 That's cynicism, right, at least in the modern sense. And 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:24.520 it's actually a lazy shortcut to experiencing reality because on 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:27.800 the one hand, you lose out an opportunity costs you 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:29.760 miss a lot of great stuff, Like you might not 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:32.159 make friends that you could have made because you were 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:35.480 suspicious of this stranger chatting you up at the outset 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:36.199 or something like that. 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:37.320 Yeah, But as far. 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:41.960 As gullibility goes, if somebody comes along and talks to 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:44.959 you in your language, they can pull one over on 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:49.480 you much more easily because they are tapping into your cynicism, 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:54.000 which again is just lazy shorthand for experiencing reality. It's 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:58.800 based largely on intuition and supposition and not necessarily taking 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:01.919 each experience and looking at it based on the facts. 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:05.320 Is a unique thing. It all has this one cast 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:08.440 to it that's the same, and that's just not how 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:09.679 the world actually works. 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:12.040 Yeah, and I think you know, that kind of suggests 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:17.159 that if there's like a country with an authoritarian leader 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:21.880 in place, like the simple sort of easy to understand 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:25.000 radical solutions that are pitched out oftentimes in those situations 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.600 are very easy to fall for if you're a gullible person, 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:32.359 because that itself is a mental shortcut. Well, we we 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:32.960 just got to do. 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:38.560 This for sure. And then conversely too, not being cynical 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:44.480 requires way more brain power and thought and just participation 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.520 than being cynical does. Like you have to actually like 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:53.159 ask yourself like, is this true? What kind of source 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:55.280 is this coming from? I might need to go do 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:58.000 some research. I might need to ask people. It's just 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:00.560 so much easier to be like, nope, there's screw me over. 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:02.600 I don't even need to bother to look into that, 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:05.880 because you're also defending yourself at the same time from 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:09.159 getting taken advantage of again until somebody comes along and 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:12.680 is talking your language, and then you will oftentimes fall 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:13.720 for whatever they're saying. 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:18.000