杏吧原创

鈥淲e all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think聽鈥� in fact they do so鈥�

THESE words are still as true today as when Bertrand Russell wrote them in 1925. You might even argue that our predilection for fake news, conspiracy theories and common sense politics suggests we聽are less inclined to think than ever. Our mental lassitude is particularly shocking given that we聽pride ourselves on being Homo sapiens, the thinking ape. How did it come to聽this?

The truth is, we are simply doing what people have always done. The human brain has been honed by millions of years of evolution聽鈥� and it is extraordinary. However, thinking is costly in terms of time and energy, so our ancestors evolved a whole range of cognitive shortcuts. These helped them survive and thrive in a hazardous world. The problem is that the modern milieu is very different. As a result, the ideas and ways of thinking that come to us most effortlessly can get聽us into a lot of trouble. The first step to avoiding these pitfalls is to聽identify them. To that end, we bring you the New 杏吧原创 guide to聽sloppy thinking鈥�