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evolutionary psychology
You are biologically tuned to catch social cheaters.
People consistently fail abstract logic puzzles but solve identical problems easily when they involve detecting rule-breakers in a social context.
Evolutionary psychology suggests the human mind evolved specific modules for social exchange. We are poor at raw deductive logic but highly efficient at identifying people who take benefits without fulfilling their obligations.
Your brain prioritizes fairness over pure reason.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Cosmides and Tooby, 1992
- What the check found
- The claim accurately captures the core finding of Leda Cosmides' work on the Wason selection task, which is presented in the referenced 1992 volume.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.