The Devil's Advocate

Choiceology with Katy Milkman

Charles Schwab

Behavioral Economics, Society & Culture, Social Sciences, Decision Making, Charles Schwab, Business, Science, Investing, Dan Heath, Katy Milkman

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2018

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In a world awash in data, you’d think it would be relatively easy to make informed, objective decisions. But there’s a problem that gets in your way, even with all of this information at your fingertips: You see what you want to see. On this episode of Choiceology with Dan Heath, we look at the tendency to favor information that confirms pre-existing beliefs. The episode begins in Europe in the 16th century, with a secret debate about sainthood, and then moves to a harrowing story of crime and punishment in contemporary America.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Dan Heath and this is Choiceology.
0:07.0	Oh, heithe.
0:10.0	Oreso Ie. It's the late 16th century.
0:20.0	It's the late 16th century.
0:22.0	Pope Clement the 7th brought together several priests to start the secret process of canonization for the late Lawrence Justinian, a bishop from Venice.
0:32.0	Basically, they're planning to make him a saint.
0:37.3	The priests, they fully support Sainthood for Justinian. He was a beloved figure,
0:42.1	a man who was born into nobility but gave up a life of wealth and privilege to serve the church.
0:47.0	But there's an obstacle to Sainthood.
0:50.0	Pope Clement's predecessor Leo the 10th didn't want this process to be hasty.
0:55.2	He didn't want it to be automatic, becoming a saint should be a big deal after all.
0:59.8	So he assigned a priest to argue against every Canada for sainthood.
1:05.0	That priest would dig into their background and try to poke holes in their candidacy.
1:10.0	That role came to be known as the Devil's Advocate.
1:15.0	No joke, that's the origin of the term.
1:17.5	So before Lawrence Justinian can become a full-blown saint,
1:21.3	he first has to get past the Devil's advocate.
1:27.0	Why would the church do this?
1:28.9	Well, they were afraid of something, a bias,
1:31.8	one that affects all of us in our decisions. In this episode you'll see why a
1:36.3	Devil's Advocate is helpful in keeping this bias in check because the stakes are high,
1:41.9	whether you're choosing a saint or convicting a sinner.
	...

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