STAR TREK Logical Thinking #9 - Confirmation Bias & Sunk Cost Fallacy

[@marklipka3864]

This video series should be the most watched on the web. I send them to my friends whenever they say/text something illogical. 🌞

[@jomama900]

Do you start your reply text with "excuse me gentlemen..." and end with "...that would be best." ? LOL!

[@sandal_thong8631]

Some complicated ones need better examples as I had to watch them twice and look up examples online to understand what the problem was.

[@PaulO-ew3hd]

Our government needs an entire course taught by Spock, after all the US Government is “illogical”.

[@sandal_thong8631]

@@PaulO-ew3hd Emotional people elect representatives that appeal to emotions. Not only do they use logical fallacies, but they lie. We could use Civics classes that teach logical arguments and how to find facts. Then we could give the vote to 16 year-olds like other countries. The more people who vote the less likely we get extremists in government.

[@cyberdelicxp9125]

I love how every "that would be best" sounds vaguely menacing...this needs to be shown I'm schools

[@danieldickson8591]

If you haven't yet, check out the next episode, #10, set in the evil mirror universe. The menace was not at all vague.

[@potatoheadpokemario1931]

​@@danieldickson8591and the last one too

[@thedavecorp]

I'm LOVING these!

[@GScottChaosnaut]

I love these! I'd be delighted to offer my voice for future projects.

[@PlasmaCoolantLeak]

I was hoping there was one of these on the Sunk Cost Fallacy, thanks!

[@potatoheadpokemario1931]

I have a question about confirmation bias, what if I'm getting some research that supports my position and some that opposes my position. How do I decide which research to go with?

[@AHerderOfCats]

Very good. Thanks again. One nitpick. Engineers wear red shirts. Science is blue. LL&P 🖖😉

[@CHDanhauser]

They are not engineers, but that doesn't preclude them working in the engine room.

[@CHDanhauser]

True, but science section personnel are allowed to help out in the engineering room as needed.

[@TheNathanJasper]

Red shirts got tired of getting killed... and before you start I know (correlation is not causation)

[@sandal_thong8631]

@@TheNathanJasper kzbin.info/www/bejne/fXq1g3eFbMSGkKs This is a link to the video studying the number of each shirt on a landing party (not counting the principals: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov, Nurse Chapel and Yeoman Rand) and there were more red-shirt deaths than either of the other colors (18), but because there were more red-shirts on landing parties (66) than others (10 yellow and 15 blue) they had the lowest percentage of deaths (27%). Yellow-shirts and blue-shirts died too (4 and 5), at higher percentages (40% and 33% respectively). This does not include deaths onboard ship, I think.

[@joeboxerdog6543]

… and in TNG Engineers wore gold. Blue is a non option. So this video used the “I didn’t do my homework” fallacy.

[@felicity4711]

Lt. Boston’s voice reminds me of William Sanderson

[@johnalang]

Crewman: Mr Spock, how do you manage to get that information on the screen so quickly?

[@okbruh]

Spock made the slides empirically and academically based as soon as he was assigned to the Enterprise, as he knew he would be working with humans 😅 OR......He took the crewmen to the Rec Room after their shift, consulted the library and taught his class there.

[@Orgruk]

Spock constantly resists the urge to throttle these stupid, stupid humans with their logical fallacies. Oh, how it must burn, like high noon on the Fire Plains of Vulcan.

[@protorhinocerator142]

0:10 That guy in the armor suit back there still hasn't moved after all these years.

[@walterfrey7105]

Spock needs a blanket party for his arrogant eavesdropping. That would be best.

[@johnbruhling8018]

He just needed enormous earplugs

[@docsavage8640]

Explain what is arrogant about it.

[@Folkstone1957]

You don’t seem to understand the purpose of these videos.

[@felicity4711]

Spock pronounces “biases” the same way as a professor I had, like it’s the plural of “biasis.” :-)

[@14598175]

no no NO! Stop right there, Spock! we've had enough of your 'overhearing' us.

[@CHDanhauser]

It must be that extra sensitive Vulcan hearing.

[@KhemistryIBMOR]

Thumbs up

[@potatoheadpokemario1931]

A two for one

[@BradiKal61]

WHAT is that sassy turn Spock does at @1:55 ???

[@sandal_thong8631]

I've been arguing that we can't have big projects in the United States anymore due to cost-overruns, payoffs to NIMBY's and cancellation of projects. I'm thinking of the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) which was cancelled after spending a lot of money digging the torus and going over budget. Carl Sagan said the proponents should have done more marketing or advertising on its benefits to let Congress know the value of what they were paying for. And it was worse to spend money then cancel it than to never fund it to begin with. Similar instruments in Europe still aren't at this project's level, though they discovered the Higgs Boson. Do we need the SSC to find (or eliminate the possibility of) Dark Matter? I'd nearly always been against the Space Shuttle, which was touted as being more efficient due to reusable components. But I think it was inefficient in getting people and satellites to space because it tried to do both at the same time. I've found evidence for this in the analogy with the nuclear-powered demonstration ship that was both a cruise ship and a freighter, did neither well and other countries didn't want it in port. Another site said that by having the support staff on duty all year long, the Space Shuttle missions came to $1 billion per launch. Besides being inefficient it bugged me that its budget came at the expense of robot missions to planets (and asteroids, moons, comets and the sun). So is the Space Shuttle an example of a program continuing due to "sunk costs"? The SSC an example of a project cancelled despite "sunk costs," but was that a good idea?

[@OhioDan]

I've always conceptualized the Sunk Cost Fallacy working the other way, wherein once someone has invested a certain amount of time and resources into something, they look at their overall level of investment and refuse to continue even if the probability of success is still reasonable or the losses can be mitigated. For example, if I've invested $1,000 in resources but later find that I can only make $800 in revenue from the investment, it is illogical to discontinue my operation at that point based on the Sunk Cost Fallacy. I've already spent the initial $1,000 either way, and cutting my losses after making the most revenue possible is still a better option than choosing not to continue the operation because it no longer appears profitable.

[@CHDanhauser]

I believe you are right, though I believe your first statement is incorrect. The Sunk Cost Fallacy 'working the other way' is not a fallacy, but is correct reasoning in the vein of "Don't throw good money after bad." NOT giving up a failed venture when it has gone too far is the fallacy.

[@sandal_thong8631]

@@CHDanhauser In my Economics text it said a business could operate at a loss for a time, if the Price falls below Average Total Costs, but should shut down if the Price falls below Average Variable Costs. There may be exceptions, of course. For instance, during the Pandemic you might have had to shut down, but didn't liquidate, continuing to hold assets and pay property taxes on the assumption that you could open and be profitable in the future, as well as getting a no-interest loan or emergency government relief grant. My understanding is that Japan had a good-old-boys network and didn't want their business partners to fail in the 1990s. So instead of unprofitable businesses going out of business, having clearance sales and making room for the others to increase market share, the banks just kept them all going. "Too big to fail?"

[@superdiza]

why the convoluted topic given as an example? cant' you reproduce this important show with trivialities?

[@SamtheBravesFan]

I wonder: was switching engineering and medical staff colors a deliberate choice like they might flub it in the 70s?

[@RobertReno1]

I really like these PSAs, but don't Engineers wear Red?

[@DClean]

Sunk cost fallacy sounds like something a degenerate gambler might employ regularly.

[@STho205]

Or a general an investor a president or 12

[@xeltanni8999]

Is that... Neebs??

[@brentknab8267]

Who's the guy with the pale green vest?

[@CHDanhauser]

That is a man with a radiation vest on. They were seen a few times in the original series.

[@aeonsbeyond]

most human endeavor appears to be sunk cost. we get richer and richer and the world keeps dying and disintegrating faster

[@red-baitingswine8816]

(G r e a t videos!): It's "verecundiam", not "vercundiam". : )

[@CHDanhauser]

You must excuse Mr. Spock's pronunciation. He has a distinct Vulcan accent when speaking Latin. Glad you like them.

[@red-baitingswine8816]

@@CHDanhauser : )