The Ethics of Cog Sci

Unfortunately, because my degree program in Cognitive Science is in science (instead of the humanities) there isn't any room for an ethics class. There is however room for the mandatory Calculus I and II. I hope that comes in handy, considering statistics was rejected from my final degree proposal. On the other hand I could have taken an ethics course as a general education requirement. Well possibly... after transferring between schools with completely different gneral education requirements, in order to pursue the BS in Cognitive Science; I don't know if I can blame myself.

In late night conversations in smoke filled rooms my friends and I talk about the future, and ethics of Cognitive Science. It is my hope that after I graduate I can do lab-research in the field. Perhaps eye tracking, an ERP lab, machine learning, doing work with games, or some other cognitive psychology laboratory. A question always arises "Why"? Why would one want to continue research in such a field? Usually the interrogator of the question is concerned that technology will eventually lead to humanity's downfall, "the end of the world". I do not necessarily disagree. 

I have often been criticized about how I use what I know about how people work in every day situations. When I explained to my friend that if I am in a club, sometimes I will approach a woman with another woman around my arm. The reason for this is building social report, simply put, if this person is invested in me, than there must be a good reason why. My friend told me that I was being sexist and manipulative. I argue that if after approaching someone with a friend, if I can get that person to open up to me, and have a meaningful relationship with them, then there is nothing wrong with what I am doing.

On the other hand, I could just as well take her home for the night. Is this still manipulative? Even after a string of other social engineering techniques? No, pinking up women isn't necessarily Cognitive Science; I would argue it is more social engineering, which I would argue can be a part of Cog Sci. The point I am getting at is that is just like any other form of technology, Cognitive Science could be used for good and bad. Yes computers can provide us with a wealth of information, but they've also proved quite well at collecting off of our personal information, and as much as they bring us together, they drive us farther apart through isolation, etceteria, etceteria.

The question remains, why is it important that we know what human eyes pay most attention to, and for how long, why do we need to know if the sound of a beer bottle opening triggers more brain activity in a alcoholic than an average person, why do we need to have computers that can "think" on their own. Obviously nothing good can come fro technology like this, and will only be exploited more by people like advertisers.

And the reason I give is a personal philosophy. It is that if heaven could ever exist, it would have to be manifested here on Earth. If we are ever going to achieve such a state, we need to understand how we operate, why we do the things we do. We need to understand that we operate on the same brains we had when we were cavemen; and that's why we are aggressive, why we believe in ancient superstitions, why our genitals control actions we make, when the woman in the club sees me approach her with another woman in my arm and recognizes what is happening.

Being able to understand the ways in which the cognitive biases, and facilities we make affect our judgement is a form of transcendence. If man can't understand that, than I believe that he deserves to be pruned from existence. Not necessarily "the end of the world", the end of the human race. The earth is 4.54 billion years old, we're 200,000 years old. Whatever we can cook up I am sure the planet can handle it.

Cognitive Bias

Humans have so much stimuli coming in all the time that we have to unconsciously cut corners in order to do mental tasks. We do this with our vision, our reasoning, and our memory. (For example, when we look at a picture or a field we know that objects that at are in front of other things must be closer because well... it is in the front!) However, when we draw incorrect conclusions based on these shortcuts. cognitive bias happens. These are call heuristics, simple rules for our brains to compute things, but incidentally can introduce errors.

A page from the cognitive biases study guide.

Somebody over on Scribd put together a great study guide of all the cognitive biases. It includes cool little images that will help you remember the biases. However a lot of the information came from a wiki, I am not sure how reliable it is. Although it seems that the same people who put this guide together are the same that have been editing the wiki page that all of these came from. Nonetheless a lot of this information can be found in any Cognitive Science or Cognitive Psychology textbook or website.

Cognitive Biases are really important to know about when dealing with people for two reasons. First you will be able to know when someone is bullshitting you or them self with one of these. Second, you will be able to know when you are appealing one of these biases. In a way, it is almost a form of enlightenment because you are able to know you are making an error. In fact, the blind spot bias is "the tendency not to compensate for one's own cognitive biases. Memorize these, and apply them every day. If you ever take a psych class you will have to know about a few of them anyways.

Cognitive Dissonance and Breaking Up

Being a Cognitive Science major I am interested in how and why people think. For this post I would like to drift away from language and whip up some pop-psychology, if you're interested in how people interact I guarantee you will find this post thought-provoking. What brought up the idea for today's topic is something I currently am experiencing, which is the dreaded post break-up stage of a relationship.

Time for real talk, because here things get a little personal. I once fell in love with a girl, who for the sake of the post we will call her Jahi, after the Persian female demon who specialized in debauthery and was responsible for causing the menstrual cycles of women. I told Jahi that I loved her and she told me the same. We dated and even carried on a long distance relationship for a while. Eventually things broke down; she would criticize me, pick fights with me, and accuse me of avoiding her. Eventually, of all platforms, she broke up with me over Skype.

image from scientificamerican.com

Months passed, I did not think much of Jahi or our relationship until I saw her new Facebook profile picture; her and her new boyfriend. Something deep inside my amygdala, outdated primordial testosterone fueled feelings of ownership perhaps, clicked. I turned off the computer and went out with my friends for the day, I needed a change of brain chemistry. Nonetheless I couldn't help but think about that picture, why did I stick around for so long with someone who I now realize was verbally abusive? Also why was I having feelings of jealousy and regret of not being with Jahi after six months?

The answer is a form of cognitive bias called cognitive dissonance. In a great book entitled Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion Dr. Robert Cialdini gives a wonderfully simple example of cognitive dissonance in the chapter Commitment and Consistency. Commitment is a desirable human trait and as a result people strive for it, even when they are wrong; because of this, people are easily exploitable. The example given was a test where people at a race track were more confident in their horse after they bet on it. Cialdini goes further to say that the more exclusive social groups have more committed members, because there is more desire amongst the members. Why can this not be true for individuals? One of the rules of logic is that the less of something there is, the more valuable it becomes. Do I see my old girlfriend as being more valuble because she is with someone else, and thus unavailable?

Just like the gamblers at the horse track I "bet" on Jahi and stuck with her for too long. How could I leave her? I loved her and how could love be wrong? How could we be wrong after telling each other how much we meant to each other and how we would never ever leave no matter what? I / we needed to stay consistent. By the time the relationship ended, I had realized that the relationship should have ended way earlier. Whoops!

My feelings of regret for leaving her is the result of rosy retrospection, seeing the past in a positive light, even if it was not necessarily as great as I remember it. All I had do to was crack open one of my journals to see just how miserable I was during the tail end of our relationship. According to logic, my girlfriend may now be more valuable in a social context because she is unavailable, but I wasn't happy before our relationship ended. If only I had started taking psychology classes earlier! At least now I am able to recognize why I feel the way I do and pass off my feelings of anger and jealousy as irrational, unfounded, and stupid for the most part. Good riddance!

In Dr. Cialdini's book he goes on to explain how cognitive dissonance is important for telemarketers and how it plays a role in fraternity hazing. It is a must read for anyone interested in social psychology.

What do you have to say about this?