Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
A podcast about what we think as well as how and why we think it.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ reflective reasoning theory and measurement • intuition vs reflection/dual-process thinking • psychometrics of reflection tests • links between reflection, philosophy, morality, religiosity • implicit bias debates • judgment/decision-making in humans and AIThis podcast explores what reflective thinking is, how it contrasts with intuitive thought, and why that distinction matters for judgment, belief, and behavior. Much of the content sits at the intersection of philosophy and cognitive science, with an emphasis on clarifying key concepts (especially “reflection”), examining how reflection is measured, and evaluating what inferences researchers can and cannot draw from popular experimental tasks. Listeners can expect careful discussion of psychometrics and methodology, including how different tests may misclassify people’s reasoning strategies and how study design choices can shape apparent relationships between reflection and other variables.
A recurring theme is how reflective reasoning relates to classic philosophical topics and to philosophers’ own patterns of disagreement. The podcast examines whether training or exposure to philosophical thought experiments influences reflective performance, and how factors like education, personality, and demographics can predict variation in philosophers’ views. It also treats reflection as a tool that can improve reasoning in some contexts while serving other functions—such as defending identity-relevant commitments—highlighting a more conditional view of when reflection helps versus hinders.
Several episodes connect reflection research to socially significant domains. These include debates about implicit bias measurement and interpretation, the role of values in psychometrics and science communication, and how moral judgment in dilemmas may depend less on “being reflective” in general than on specific kinds of reflection (for example, sensitivity to mathematical structure). The show also discusses public health decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing how prior philosophical commitments and political values can predict compliance more than certain messaging manipulations.
Later themes extend reflective reasoning to intelligent systems, considering how humans and machines might switch pragmatically between faster intuitive processes and slower deliberative ones depending on goals and context. Across the podcast, the typical format involves the host presenting and often reading research papers, then highlighting implications for rationality, self-knowledge, epistemology, and applied decision-making.