February 1, 2010

"Cognitive fluency."

People like to think about things that are easy to think about.
Because it shapes our thinking in so many ways, fluency is implicated in decisions about everything from the products we buy to the people we find attractive to the candidates we vote for - in short, in any situation where we weigh information. It’s a key part of the puzzle of how feelings like attraction and belief and suspicion work....
Interesting. Now, how do you want to use this?

It made me think of this song:

25 comments:

Meade said...

Tim Hardin's version was the best.

Ann Althouse said...

I have to disagree with you. Wouldn't it be easier to agree with me and therefore preferable?

Mark O said...

Great folk song from 1965.

Not everyone thinks the way the article describes, but those who do are generally plaintiffs in secruities fraud cases.

And, former Obama supporters.

Peter V. Bella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Peter V. Bella said...

Boston Globe is easy to pronounce. It is owned by the New York Times. Again easy to pronounce. I do not think I want to invest.

Meade said...

Wouldn't it be easier to agree with me and therefore preferable?

Maybe. But I think we both know that you'd marry me anyway.

traditionalguy said...

That is a beautiful song. The power of the familiar being easy to accept while the new and different requires that we grow and change is also the reason why a celebrity's face remains such a powerful image that can be used over and over because it is familiar.

Ann Althouse said...

Yes, but I won't have your baby.

Meade said...

I'm sure tradguy will be relieved to hear you say that.

Automatic_Wing said...

It's easy to think of Drake Bennett as some kind of off-brand Malcom Gladwell.

traditionalguy said...

People pleasers can find a reason to believe in their lover says the song, and that is preferable indeed.

JAL said...

Are you guys doing this sitting across from each other at that glass topped table on that great rug?

Ray said...

Didn't we already know this? It's conformity with a dash of confirmation bias and rationalization, so that after making the mentally lazy choice you can talk yourself (or anyone that asks) into believing it was the best choice as well. Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by laziness.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

“Disfluency functions as a cognitive alarm,” Alter says. “It sets up a cognitive roadblock and makes people think, and it triggers a sense of risk and concern.”

Bush 43 and Palin.. and the reason why Obama wont leave home w/o his teleprompter.

Beth said...

I like the pre-God-awful-hack-period Rod Stewart.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Results like these suggest that feeling good about yourself may in part be a matter of having a hard time feeling bad, and that confidence and even success might be triggered by interventions that do nothing but make failure seem the more intimidating possibility. The human brain, for all its power, is suspicious of difficulty, but perhaps we can learn to use that.

Reminds me of JFK who said..

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

veni vidi vici said...

Cognitive flatulence


That's what the title of this thread looked like to me at first glance. Pretty much what the link sounds about, as well.

Anonymous said...

If I listen long enough to O
I find a way to believe that it's all so.

Dave said...

I've disabled my Flash and it has made my web browsing experience so much more satisfying. My pages load very fast, and I am not distracted by Flash ads.

Ann Althouse said...

@JAL In bed.

@Beth I looked for a video from the period around 1970 when he originally recorded the song. I'd have much preferred it.

Schorsch said...

I always find the interpretation of these concepts interesting. I study animal cognition, so I can tell you that animals do the simplest possible things, because they are likely to get them right, and thus survive. Humans aren't much different.

JAL said...

@Althouse

Pillow talk takes on a whole new meaning with you guys. ;-)

Ralph L said...

I know they're anti-hip, but I'll take the Carpenters over Rod Stewart any day, any song (except Tonight's the Night).

Meade said...

Actually, I think I read somewhere that Karen Carpenter has become ultra hip.

Stephen R. Diamond said...

Here's a response to a law-review article on "cognitive fluency" and legal writing:
http://disputedissues.blogspot.com/2011/09/cognitive-disfluency-simpler-isnt.html