Psychologists have long known that we actively have to process ideas in order for them to lodge in our minds. In processing ideas, we compare them to what we know already in order to make sense of them. This can lead to some interesting distortions. Here is a famous example.16 Consider this description of a young woman:
Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.
Think about who Linda might be for a moment. Imagine a large population of people that includes Linda. Which of these two statements is more likely: ‘Linda works in a bank’ or ‘Linda works in a bank and is a feminist’? Around eight out of ten people consider the second statement to be more likely, but that would be the wrong answer. Consider the problem like a Venn diagram of overlapping groups.
If the number of female bank workers in the world is group A and the number of feminists in the world is group B, you can see that it is impossible to have more female bank workers who are also feminists (A + B) than female bank workers alone. This is because the number of female bank workers who are also feminists will always be a subset of all female bank workers. Nevertheless, the description of Linda seems more typical of a feminist bank worker, and so we say that it is more likely. The Linda problem demonstrates how our minds apply the principle that the more an idea fits with our expectations, the more likely we are to deem it to be true. Our stereotypes of feminists are much stronger than our stereotypes of bank workers, who, let’s face it, can seem a nondescript bunch. Because the description of Linda fits our stereotype of feminists, we estimate her to be more likely to be a feminist bank worker, even though there will always be fewer such people in the world compared to all female bank workers.
FIG. 4: If the number of female bank workers is A and the number of feminists is B, then there cannot be more feminist, female bank workers (A + B) than female bank workers. AUTHOR’S COLLECTION.
Why are some ideas more likely? Bankers and feminists are complicated modern concepts that we have learned through culture. Our familiarity with them depends on how often we have encountered these concepts. They do not have any built-in special status. However, other aspects of thinking may be more ingrained in the human mind; traceable to our evolutionary past, they still exert a legacy today. Consider an example that seems more related to irrational thinking and beliefs. Do you have a strong fear of spiders? Does the sight or thought of them make you shiver or feel sick? Do you experience or believe you are faced with great harm when you see one of these creatures? If so, you probably have a phobia.
Phobias are irrational fears and beliefs that are completely out of proportion to the actual source of potential threat. For example, there are no poisonous spiders in the United Kingdom, yet this is one of the most common sources of phobia in that country. Like many wives, Kim makes me remove spiders from the house. I should not complain. We have a friend who also lives in the country but has to pay an exterminator to travel miles to do this job for her when her husband is not around. In 2005 the Zoological Society of London surveyed one thousand adults and found that eight out of ten reported having arachnophobia, the irrational fear of spiders.17
It’s not just creepy-crawlies. Most of us know someone who suffers from one of the common phobias such as fear of heights, open spaces, snakes, or small dark places. Sufferers can’t help themselves. No amount of reassurance or rational explanation can help a truly phobic sufferer. Sometimes phobias become so strong that sufferers cannot stop themselves from taking self-harming actions. For example, obsessive hand-washing is a common symptom of an abnormal fear of contamination. The urge to wash is compelling even though the individual knows that too much washing can be harmful. Such individuals sometimes rub their hands raw until they are bleeding. The 1920s’ film mogul and aviator Howard Hughes became famously obsessive about dirt, contamination, and touching other people. He would certainly not wear someone else’s cardigan, killer or otherwise.
Where do these beliefs and behaviours come from? Let’s consider an explanation based on learning. In the same way that we can acquire superstitious rituals in times of stress, one theory suggests that phobias are caused by a bad experience as a child. In what must be one of the most notorious psychological studies ever conducted, John Watson and Rosalie Raynor presented a nine-month-old baby, ‘Little Albert’, with a white lab rat.18 At first the baby showed no fear, but then Watson sneaked up behind the infant and startled him with a loud bang by striking a hammer on a metal bar. Naturally, this startled Little Albert, and he cried. Every time Watson and Raynor presented the rat, they clanged the hammer to frighten the poor child. Very soon, the sight of the rat alone was enough to reduce Little Albert to a shaking bundle of nerves. He had learned to fear the sight of a rat. Little Albert soon became fearful of a number of similar objects that Watson and Raynor presented to him. Not too surprising considering that, whenever these two adults appeared, they seemed hell-bent on making his life a misery. Rabbits, dogs, a sealskin coat, and even a Santa Claus mask soon became sources of sheer terror for the poor child. Only by crawling away could Little Albert get some comfort and relief. He had become phobic to objects that had not previously upset him. These findings supported the theory that adult phobias are due to some bad learning episode as a child.
I know from personal experience that there is some truth to this theory. I used to fish when I was a young boy and didn’t particularly like the maggots we used for bait. I remember feeling a bit queasy when I had to pick up their wriggling little bodies to impale them on the hook. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was something that I could do. Some years later I would have a terrible encounter with maggots. Like many ten-year-olds, I had taken to searching old derelict houses looking for anything to scavenge. In one house, I remember creeping from one darkened room to another. It had been entirely trashed, as if it had been in an earthquake, and so I had to pick my way through the rubble and household debris. On entering a darkened back room, I heard a faint gurgling, almost buzzing, sound but was unable to see where it came from. I stepped forward onto what I thought was a small furry cushion. In fact, it was the bloated carcass of a dead cat that gave way under the weight of my foot, causing it to pop like a balloon full of rice pudding. Before I realized what had happened, the smell of decay hit my nostrils like a physical punch forcing me to gag and retch. The stench of rotting flesh is universally recognized as one of the most unpleasant on the planet – a response programmed into humans but not carrion beasts or flies. When I lifted my foot into a shaft of light that streamed through a broken window, I stared at the horror of my canvas gym shoe writhing with a mass of maggots. I ran screaming into the daylight and eventually walked home barefoot. From that day on, I have been phobic to maggots. I experience extreme uncontrollable nausea whenever I see them. I particularly hate filmmakers who seem to delight in inserting shots of wriggling maggots into films and documentaries without warning the viewer. As for flies, the creatures that maggots aspire to become, I take great delight in killing them. To hell with karma and Buddhism. If I come back as a fly, I would prefer to be squashed. And do not even think of offering me rice pudding for dessert.