Episode 43 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Robert A Burton, MD, author of On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not, which I discussed in Episode 42. Dr. Burton tells us what inspired him to write this book and we explore some of the implications of the fact that what he calls the "feeling of knowing" comes from our unconscious, including the fact that it is not as reliable as it feels.

Listen to Episode 43 of the Brain Science Podcast

Show Notes and Links

Robert A Burton, MD

Mind Reader blog on Salon.com

On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not

Previous Episodes of the Brain Science Podcast:

Episode 42: Part 1 of our discussion of On Being Certain

Episode 13: Unconscious Decisions-featuring Blink by Malcom Gladwell

Episode 15: Interview with Read Montague about unconscious decisions

Other scientists/writers mentioned in this episode:

Benjamin Libet: important experiments showing that unconscious signals precede our awareness of deciding to act

Timothy Wilson: Strangers to Ourselves

John Searle: philosopher, Mind: A Brief Introduction

David Bohm: physicist, Thought as a System

Other terms mentioned in the interview:

Cotard's Syndrome: when the patient believes they do not exist or that they are dead

cognitive dissonance: a mismatch between what one believes and what the evidence supports

Listen to Episode 43 of the Brain Science Podcast