The Logic of Social Cognition

Are human beings fundamentally logical creatures? Well, yes and no! It turns out that we are often quite bad at logical thinking, but we become very logical under certain circumstances. What governs when we are better and worse at logical thinking? The surprising answer has a lot to do with our social nature, and our evolutionary history!

0:00 – Intro
1:05 – What is logic?
5:42 – If… then…
10:14 – The Wason selection task
16:02 – Cheater detection
21:50 – Social perspective
26:13 – Key concepts

Sources:
Wason (1968). Reasoning about a rule. doi.org/10.1080%2F14640746808400161
Gigerenzer & Hug (1992). Domain-specific reasoning: Social contracts, cheating, and perspective change. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/00100277…
Cosmides & Tooby (1992). Cognitive adaptations for social exchange. books.google.com/books?id=BjhdDgAAQBAJ&lpg