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Errors in thinking still feel right
The line illusion
Picture two lines drawn side by side, one looking longer than the other. Someone tells you they are the same length, and one of them continues to look longer anyway. You really do believe you're wrong, though, so the illusion stops fooling your judgment even while it keeps fooling your eyes.
When thinking errs
Illusions in thinking don't work that way. Someone can tell you a belief is an error, and your better self can agree, and it still feels right. Psychopaths are a case in point: they instill a lot of confidence, you've been warned not to believe them, and you feel warmth toward them anyway. The warmth makes it seem that whatever you were told must be a mistake.
Some people trusted Bernie Madoff and insisted he was an honorable man even after they were warned. There was something very compelling in him, and the feeling he drew out of them was stronger than the warnings.
Why does the line illusion survive measuring?
The Müller-Lyer illusion, published by Franz Müller-Lyer in 1889, makes two equal lines look different because of the arrowheads or fins at their ends. Visual processing runs automatically in the early visual system, before any belief gets a say. Philosopher Jerry Fodor used this in his 1983 book The Modularity of Mind as a leading example of a perceptual system that beliefs cannot reach. Cross-cultural studies by Marshall Segall and colleagues in the 1960s found that the strength of the illusion varies between societies.
Why does charm outweigh a warning?
Psychologist Paul Slovic and colleagues described the affect heuristic, in which people judge how risky or beneficial something is partly by the feeling it gives them. A feeling arrives instantly, while a warning has to be recalled and weighed. Robert Hare's Psychopathy Checklist lists superficial charm as one of its traits. In a 2006 study, Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov found that people form a judgment of a stranger's trustworthiness from a face after only a tenth of a second.
How did Madoff fool investors for decades?
Bernie Madoff ran his investment firm from 1960 and was once chairman of the Nasdaq stock market, which gave him standing in the industry. His fund reported steady gains with very few down months. Financial analyst Harry Markopolos sent the SEC detailed warnings about the firm starting in 1999. Madoff pleaded guilty in 2009 to 11 federal felonies and was sentenced to 150 years in prison.
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