Is a hotdog a sandwich?
Well, that depends on your definition of a sandwich (and a hotdog), and according to the most recent research in cognitive science, the odds that your concept of a sandwich is the same as another person's concept are shockingly low.
In this episode we explore how understanding why that question became a world-spanning argument in the mid 2010s helps us understand some of the world-spanning arguments vexing us today.
Our guest is psychologist Celeste Kidd who studies how we acquire and conceptualize information, form beliefs around those concepts, and, in general, make sense of the torrent of information blasting our brains each and every second. Her most recent paper examines how conceptual misalignment can lead to semantic disagreements, which can lead us to talk past each other (and get into arguments about things like whether hotdogs are sandwiches).
Previous Episodes
Why can’t we settle the “is a hot dog a sandwich?” debate?
How Minds Change
David McRaney’s Twitter
YANSS Twitter
Newsletter
Celeste Kidd’s Website
Celeste Kidd’s Twitter
Latent Diversity in Human Concepts
286 - Notes on Complexity - Neil Theise
284 - Awe - Dacher Keltner (rebroadcast)
283 - Cultures of Growth - Mary C. Murphy
282 - They Thought We Were Ridiculous - Andy Luttrell
281 - More Chat, Less Bot - Jeremy Utley, Kian Gohar, Henrik Werdelin
280 - Supercommunicators - Charles Duhigg
YANSS 279 - Pluralistic Ignorance (rebroadcast)
278 - An Admirable Point - Florence Hazrat
277 - Visual Thinking - Temple Grandin (rebroadcast)
276 - How to Stand up to a Bully - Andrea Chalupa
275 - Blight - Emily Monosson
274 - Cascades - Greg Satell
273 - The Conspiracy Test - Jesse Richardson
272 - Quit! - Annie Duke (rebroadcast)
271 - Survival of the Richest - Douglas Rushkoff (rebroadcast)
270 - Defining Genius
269 - Deconstructing How Minds Change - Michael Taft
268 - The Status Game - Will Storr (rebroadcast)
267 - Do Your Own Research - Sedona Chinn
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