Education Doesn't Insulate us from Misperceptions

This week I was struck by Duffy contradicting himself. In Chapter 7 he says that just because we have more schooling doesn't mean we're better at noticing our misperceptions. In fact it may simply make us better at torturing statics and stories into a format that reinforces our incorrect ideas1. Then later he says that there is a strong correlation between higher education and more accurate perceptions2. So which is it? Duffy never reckons the two ideas that contradict each other. To get a better picture we need to look at previous reading. Reaching back to a prior book club book, Think Again asserted that the smarter you are the harder it is to rethink your position3. This parallels Duffy who finds that the more we tie an idea to our identity the harder it is for us to give it up, because it's giving up a part of ourselves4. Tim Harford came to a similar conclusion in The Data Detective when he said that being educated can be a detriment because you notice fine details that are…