The True Cost of Conviction

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Dialogue, Science, Reason, Michaelshermer, Natural Sciences, Skeptic

4.4 • 921 Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2025

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When you are faced with a decision, do you consider the best outcome, or do you consider your deepest values about which actions are appropriate? Steven Sloman contrasts these two primary strategies for making decisions: consequentialism or prioritizing one’s sacred values. He argues that, while both modes of decision making are necessary tools for a good decision maker, people err by deploying sacred values more often than they should, especially when it comes to sociopolitical issues. As a result, we oversimplify, grow disgusted and angry, and act in ways that contribute to social polarization.

Drawing on historical and current examples of the two decision-making strategies in action, Sloman provides a thorough overview of the psychology of decision making, including work on judgment, conscious and unconscious decision-making processes, the roles of emotion, and even an analysis of habit and addiction.

Steven Sloman has taught at Brown University since 1992. He is the author of Causal Models and a coauthor of The Knowledge Illusion (with Phil Fernbach). His new book is The Cost of Conviction: How Our Deepest Values Lead Us Astray.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to The Michael Shermer Show.
0:15.1	All right. Here we go. Hi, everybody. It's Michael Shermer, and it's time for another episode of, you know what,
0:21.3	the Michael Shermer show. Here we go. I'm going to open or introduce today's episode by reading
0:27.6	you a thought experiment, a vignette, as it were. Here is vignette number one. You have $50
0:35.0	available. A neighbor who just lost their job comes by and says they need $50 to buy a meal plan for their child,
0:43.2	otherwise their child will not have lunch at school.
0:45.8	Can you give them the money?
0:47.5	You ask two friends for their advice.
0:49.2	Frankie thinks about it for quite a while and then advises you to go ahead and give the money to your neighbor.
0:55.7	Charlie Harley thinks at all advising you to immediately give the neighbor the money.
1:00.5	On the basis of their advice, who would you say is more morally praiseworthy?
1:05.4	Frankie, the first one, who thought about it for quite a while, or Charlie, who just made a
1:10.3	snap decision.
1:11.5	Okay, here's vignette number two. Very similar, but not quite. You have only, you have only
1:16.7	$50 available. A neighbor who just lost their job, comes by and says they need $50 to buy a meal
1:21.8	plan for their child, otherwise the child will not have lunch at school. Same scenario as the
1:25.9	first one. Can you give them the money?
1:27.6	But there's a problem. You just got a text from an old schoolmate asking to borrow $50 to buy
1:33.5	the medication they need to cure a serious illness. You asked two friends for advice.
1:39.3	Frankie thinks about it for quite a while and then advises you to give your neighbor the money.
1:44.1	Charlie Harley thinks at all advising you you to give your neighbor the money.
1:47.4	Charlie Harley thinks at all advising you to immediately give the neighbor the money.
	...

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