Comments on: Delay, Define, Derail…And Deny http://www.1115.org/2009/10/19/delay-define-derail-and-deny/ Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:49:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: kiel http://www.1115.org/2009/10/19/delay-define-derail-and-deny/comment-page-1/#comment-161853 kiel Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:41:30 +0000 http://www.1115.org/?p=10834#comment-161853 Sen. Kyl falls prey to the availability heuristic: His memories of 9/11 are easily available to recall. Because the 45,000 deaths from lack of healthcare are diffuse, they are not available to recall. The result is that the former is far more salient to him. It's the same reason people who are scared to fly don't worry about driving in a car, despite the fact that the latter is far more dangerous than the former. Sen. Kyl's failure is pretty typical. But we should expect our Senators not to be so typical. And his denial of his own cognitive weaknesses is disturbing. Sen. Kyl falls prey to the availability heuristic: His memories of 9/11 are easily available to recall. Because the 45,000 deaths from lack of healthcare are diffuse, they are not available to recall. The result is that the former is far more salient to him. It’s the same reason people who are scared to fly don’t worry about driving in a car, despite the fact that the latter is far more dangerous than the former.

Sen. Kyl’s failure is pretty typical. But we should expect our Senators not to be so typical. And his denial of his own cognitive weaknesses is disturbing.

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