Hello and welcome to the political orphanage, a home for plucky misfits and problem solvers.

I'm your host, Andrew Heaton.

Here's a very old joke dating from the 13th century, which was way, way funnier than the 14th 14th century which was way way funnier than the 14th century. Kind of a school

marm century in my opinion. But actually there's a decent chance that that's just

when this particular joke was written down.

It could well have been making people yuck it up as far back as ancient Samaria.

Feel free to tell this one at your local pub.

Mass Redden's wife sees him in the yard. Pub. What are you searching for? To which Nazretan replies,

Wife, I am looking for my ring.

But husband, you lost your ring in the living room.

Yes, wife, but the house is too dark it's brighter in the

courtguard. Ha ha ha! You've probably heard a variant of that joke before in the

some 800 years since it started making the rounds, it's been updated to a policeman

talking to a drunk who's searching for his car keys under a streetlight. The policeman asks if he's sure he lost his keys there and he says no he lost him in the parking lot but it's too dark there

It's brighter under the streetlight It's given rise to a term called the street light effect or the drunkard search principle an observational bias wherein people search for something wherever it's easiest to look

Which is not too different from confirmation bias.

I feel like they're in the same family.

Confirmation bias is a phrase coined by English psychologist Peter Wausen

in the 1960s.

You know confirmation bias, a tendency to favor information that confirms or strengthens a

pre-existing belief and to be skeptical of information which challenges it. We all suffer from confirmation bias. It's at work and our

religious beliefs or lack thereof or stereotypes. If we think somebody doesn't

...