The Hidden Cost of Your Values | Steve Sloman

Welcome to Behavior Groups, the podcast that explores why we behave the way that we do. I'm Kurt Nelson and I'm Tim Houlihan. We talk with researchers and other interesting people to unlock the mysteries of our behavior by using a behavioral science lens. Yeah, and today's episode we are going to be talking about convictions. Like How often have you been in jail, Kurt? Just once and that was a fluke, but no, those aren't the convictions that I'm talking about. Today we're gonna be talking about convictions kind of in the sense of sacred values that we hold and how those sacred values drive a lot of our beliefs and actions. Ah well, that makes more sense. Um we had the pleasure of talking with Steve Sloman. researcher, author, and teacher who has written a great new book about the cost of conviction. It's a timely and important perspective on how people frame decisions and how relying on sacred values

unwittingly unwittingly leads to social polarization. Yeah. And in our conversation, Steve argues that while convictions are essential for social cohesion. they can lead to conflict and polarization. Now Steve differentiates between sacred values, which are absolute and based on our community, and consequentialist beliefs, which focus in on outcomes. The difference is key to understanding how we look at the world and the actions that we take in it. Yeah, it's a fun conversation that goes from the etymology of the word zealots to to how moral decisions are made, to knowledge as a community based uh component, and how all of this can impact business.

It's a wide ranging and fun conversation, and one that we think you will Thoroughly, thoroughly enjoy. We also think that you would enjoy and like being a member of our Grooves community on Facebook. It's a community of like-minded individuals where we get to explore some wide-ranging, deep, and Not so deep. Yeah. Questions. Yeah, not so deep sometimes. Yeah. I would recommend right now that you stop this podcast and go sign up. Go. Go do it. Okay.

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