THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 20

What can people’s willingness or unwillingness to eat chocolate molded into the shape of dog poop tell us about human thinking?

Subject: Thinking - “Aliefs” and Beliefs

Event:  Birthday of philosopher Tamar Szabo Gendler, 1965 

Today is the birthday of philosopher Tamar Szabo Gendler, who is the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale.

With the coining of one simple word, Gendler has provided insight into human psychology.  We have all heard of “beliefs,” but how many of us know about “aliefs”?

                                                                Image by John Hain from Pixabay 

According to Gendler, aliefs are our automatic, instinctive, attitudes toward our world.  Unlike our beliefs, which are conscious and rational, aliefs revolve around words beginning with the letter A: affective, associative, automatic, and irrational (1).

To illustrate the difference between aliefs and beliefs, and to show how they interact, imagine you are riding up to the top of a skyscraper in a glass elevator that runs on the outside of the building.  The elevator has been in operation for years, is maintained frequently, and is safe.  Nevertheless, you have a fear of heights, so as the elevator rises and you look down on the city below, you become fearful.  This instinctive fear represents an alief because it is not rational and springs from instinctive emotions.  Internally you are also experiencing belief since the rational side of you knows that you are safe and that there is no danger of falling.

Aliefs explain why we get scared at horror movies:  even though the rational part of us knows that images on a screen cannot hurt us, our aliefs still trigger our brains to feel fear.

Psychologist Paul Rozin has completed research that gives interesting insights into aliefs.  In one study, he offered subjects a delicious sample of pure chocolate; there was one hitch, however: the chocolate was molded into a dog poop shape.  Despite the fact that each subject knew that they were being offered pure chocolate, 40 percent refused the offer. Rozin got similar results when he asked subjects to drink apple juice out of a sparkling new bedpan (2).

The interaction of alief and beliefs also help us to understand the nature of prejudice and bias.  While we may believe that we harbor no racial prejudice against any group, it is possible that we hold aliefs that reflect implicit racial bias.  Similarly, we may claim to be progressive when it comes to eschewing stereotypes about gender roles; nevertheless, we should realize that our aliefs might reflect stereotypes about the acceptable roles of men versus women within the home or in the workplace.

 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the difference between aliefs and beliefs, and why do they matter?

Challenge - Simple as A and B: Write a public service announcement that explains the difference between aliefs and beliefs. Also, explain how each of us experiences both of these types of thinking on a regular basis.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

December 20, 2022:  On this day in 1946, the movie It’s A Wonderful Life premiered in New York at the Globe Theatre.  Seventy years after its release, the story of how George Bailey arrived at his joyous epiphany is still one of the most popular holiday films ever made. The film was based on a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern called “The Greatest Gift.”  After unsuccessful attempts to get the story published, Stern mailed 200 copies of the story to friends and family during the holiday season in 1943 as a Christmas card.  After the story came to the attention of executives at RKO Pictures, they bought the rights to the story for $10,000 (3). One rhetorically interesting aspect of the film is the dialogue of its protagonist George Bailey.  In one of the film's most famous scenes, George pleads with his antagonist, the scheming misanthrope Mr. Potter:

Just remember this, Mr. Potter: that this rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?

Notice the intentional overuse of conjunctions here.  This rhetorical device is called polysyndeton.  The added conjunctions slow the list down, emphasizing each individual item.  The repetition of conjunctions gives the reader the feeling that things are piling up and creates a tone that is more formal than a typical list.

Sources:

1-Santos, Laurie. “CRITICAL THINKING - Cognitive Biases: Alief.” YouTube 15 Sept. 2015.

2-Tsouderos, Trine. “That's disgusting! But we love it.” Chicago Tribune 27 Oct. 2005.

3-http://failuremag.com/feature/article/its_a_wonderful_life/P2/