Shankar Vedantam

But I can also imagine alienating them if we press too hard.

How do we find that balance, Phil?

You know, I was talking to a friend some time ago, and he was pointing out that the Socratic method of asking a series of questions and having the other person answer them, and then over time you show the person who was answering the questions didn't know very much about what they were talking, and the idea is that this is eventually how you lead people to enlightenment.

My friend was pointing out that this is a really condescending way to have a conversation with someone, where you're asking them a lot of questions.

And they stick with the conversation, even though they slowly get to see that they, in fact, don't know what they're talking about.

And so Rob's point, I think, is well taken here, because to actually practice this, to actually be curious about someone without coming across as interrogating them or grilling them is not easy to do.

We got a question from listener Kate, who also asked about how to manage tricky discussions.

She said, I struggle with how to manage conversations where the opposing view is based on facts that are nonsensical.

Is there a way to continue when the facts we believe are not the same?

One of the things that Kate mentioned a second ago, Phil, is this idea that she finds it difficult to have conversations with people who come up with nonsensical facts.

In our earlier conversation, you talked about having a conversation with people who believe that the earth was flat.

Talk a moment about whether you found it difficult to have those conversations.

At the back of your mind, surely you were thinking, it's absurd that we're even having this conversation.

How did you maintain a spirit of openness and curiosity as you were talking with people who fervently held this belief?

When we come back, Phil Fernbach shares how we might remedy the illusion of knowledge.

You're listening to Hidden Brain.

I'm Shankar Vedant.

I'm Shankar Vedantam.

Phil Fernback studies how we often overestimate how much we actually know about a given topic.

Along with Stephen Sloman, he is co-author of The Knowledge Illusion, Why We Never Think Alone.