Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Book Reading #47: Why We Make Mistakes Microblog

Reference Information
   Title: Why We Make Mistakes
   Author: Joseph T. Hallinan
   Editors: Broadway Books (2009)


Summary
Chapter 8: We Like Things Tidy (16 pages)
In this chapter, Hallinan describes how we organize things within our memory. He talks about the hierarchical nature in which we like things organized. In addition, he gives a few examples about how people remember things. One of them was how people drew the Seine River much straighter than it actually was. He also goes on to talk about how people remember things. A lot of people will rationalize memories and change them, leaving out or making up details as they go. These added details cause them to remember events differently from how they happened.


Chapter 9: Men Shoot First (15 pages)
Hallinan compares and contrasts men and women. There is a relationship between overconfidence and perceived risk. Women are much less confident than men in several areas. One of the examples he cites is driving and fixing bugs in Excel. He goes on to talk about how boys tinker and explore further than girls.


Discussion
In regards to chapter 8, this reminds me of the "Lost in the Mall" experiment talked about in Opening Skinner's Box. I know that I have certainly done that before...left out facts that would've made my story less interesting or not applicable to what is being currently talked about. Chapter 9 had a lot of similarities to what ends up getting discussed in my Sociology class. We talk a lot about gender gaps and things like that. 

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