Dr. Jamil Zaki

And integrative complexity is a great way to learn about the world and about the social world, whereas cynicism, as you rightly point out, is much more of a heuristic. It's a black and white form of thinking. And the really sad thing is that Cynicism then puts us in a position where we can't learn very much. This is what in learning theory is called a wicked learning environment.

And integrative complexity is a great way to learn about the world and about the social world, whereas cynicism, as you rightly point out, is much more of a heuristic. It's a black and white form of thinking. And the really sad thing is that Cynicism then puts us in a position where we can't learn very much. This is what in learning theory is called a wicked learning environment.

And integrative complexity is a great way to learn about the world and about the social world, whereas cynicism, as you rightly point out, is much more of a heuristic. It's a black and white form of thinking. And the really sad thing is that Cynicism then puts us in a position where we can't learn very much. This is what in learning theory is called a wicked learning environment.

And I don't want to get too nerdy. Well, I guess I can get nerdy here. You can get as nerdy as you want. This audience likes nerdy. So... Let's think in Bayesian terms, right?

And I don't want to get too nerdy. Well, I guess I can get nerdy here. You can get as nerdy as you want. This audience likes nerdy. So... Let's think in Bayesian terms, right?

And I don't want to get too nerdy. Well, I guess I can get nerdy here. You can get as nerdy as you want. This audience likes nerdy. So... Let's think in Bayesian terms, right?

So Bayesian statistics is where you have a set of beliefs about the world, you take new information in, and that new information allows you to update your priors, right, into a posterior distribution, into a new set of beliefs. And that's great. That's a great way to learn about the world, to adapt to new information and new circumstances.

So Bayesian statistics is where you have a set of beliefs about the world, you take new information in, and that new information allows you to update your priors, right, into a posterior distribution, into a new set of beliefs. And that's great. That's a great way to learn about the world, to adapt to new information and new circumstances.

So Bayesian statistics is where you have a set of beliefs about the world, you take new information in, and that new information allows you to update your priors, right, into a posterior distribution, into a new set of beliefs. And that's great. That's a great way to learn about the world, to adapt to new information and new circumstances.

A wicked learning environment is where your priors prevent you from gathering the information that you would need to confirm or disconfirm them. So think about mistrust, for instance, right? It's easy to understand why people mistrust. Some of us are insecurely attached, and we've been hurt in the past. We're trying to stay safe. We don't want to be betrayed.

A wicked learning environment is where your priors prevent you from gathering the information that you would need to confirm or disconfirm them. So think about mistrust, for instance, right? It's easy to understand why people mistrust. Some of us are insecurely attached, and we've been hurt in the past. We're trying to stay safe. We don't want to be betrayed.

A wicked learning environment is where your priors prevent you from gathering the information that you would need to confirm or disconfirm them. So think about mistrust, for instance, right? It's easy to understand why people mistrust. Some of us are insecurely attached, and we've been hurt in the past. We're trying to stay safe. We don't want to be betrayed.

This is a completely natural response. It's a totally understandable response. But when we decide to mistrust, we never are able to learn whether the people who we are mistrusting would have been trustworthy or not. When we trust, we can learn whether we've been right or not, right? Somebody can betray us and that hurts and we remember it for years.

This is a completely natural response. It's a totally understandable response. But when we decide to mistrust, we never are able to learn whether the people who we are mistrusting would have been trustworthy or not. When we trust, we can learn whether we've been right or not, right? Somebody can betray us and that hurts and we remember it for years.

This is a completely natural response. It's a totally understandable response. But when we decide to mistrust, we never are able to learn whether the people who we are mistrusting would have been trustworthy or not. When we trust, we can learn whether we've been right or not, right? Somebody can betray us and that hurts and we remember it for years.

Or more often than not, the data turn out to show us they can honor that trust. We can build a relationship. We can start a collaboration. We can live a full social life. It turns out that the problem is that trusting people incorrectly, you do learn from, but mistrusting people incorrectly, you don't learn from because the missed opportunities are invisible to us.

Or more often than not, the data turn out to show us they can honor that trust. We can build a relationship. We can start a collaboration. We can live a full social life. It turns out that the problem is that trusting people incorrectly, you do learn from, but mistrusting people incorrectly, you don't learn from because the missed opportunities are invisible to us.

Or more often than not, the data turn out to show us they can honor that trust. We can build a relationship. We can start a collaboration. We can live a full social life. It turns out that the problem is that trusting people incorrectly, you do learn from, but mistrusting people incorrectly, you don't learn from because the missed opportunities are invisible to us.

Wow. I love that question. There is a lot of variance. And the data on cynicism are much more local to the U.S. typically. I mean, for better and for worse, a lot of research on this is done in an American context. But That said, there's a lot of data on generalized trust, which you could say is an inverse of cynicism, right?

Wow. I love that question. There is a lot of variance. And the data on cynicism are much more local to the U.S. typically. I mean, for better and for worse, a lot of research on this is done in an American context. But That said, there's a lot of data on generalized trust, which you could say is an inverse of cynicism, right?