Intellectual Humility in a Polarized World with Kurt Gray

Buy a ticket to this program here. Buy a season ticket here. At a time when complex technology of all sorts is exploding and voluminous information about the world is at our literal fingertips, one commodity in oddly short supply is intellectual humility. And in these polarized times, we’ve become shockingly convinced that somehow our political allies can decipher reality with utter clarity and it’s only our ideological foes who are thoroughly, utterly and so very dangerously WRONG.Turns out, according to our special guest Dr. Kurt Gray, our brains are designed to notice patterns and make generalizations to keep us safe, not so much to find truth with accuracy, and this design quirk leads to us overgeneralizing what we think we know in unproductive ways. Kurt brings a strong argument that this describes you too, sorry (you’ll actually be as entertained as you can be when you’re learning just how deluded you are). Together we’ll imagine what we might achieve together if we remember and restore intellectual humility to our politics, to our planet—and because we’re furiously figuring out “How We Get Our Groove Back”—to our lives. Scroll all the way down to see the yummy dinner menu that Lively Cafe has planned for you!Dr. Gray is an Associate Professor in Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he directs both the Deepest Beliefs Lab, which studies beliefs around morality and religion, and the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding. With Harvard’s Dr. Daniel Wegner he is the co-author of the book “The Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why It Matters.”Our Menu:Chicken MarbellaVegetarian option: Cauliflower MarbellaMashed red potatoesBroccoliYeast rollsIced tea, lemonade, coffeeFor dessert: Peanut butter brownies + Chewy orange bars