Are human beings rational? No.

In fact, Stuart Sutherland managed to write an entire

book on the Irrationality of people.
Here is a review of Stuart Sutherlands Irrationality. I think this quote is worth
reproducing here:
First published in 1992, Irrationality proposes, and to any reasonable mind proves,
that we are for the most part credulous fools who would do well, in most
circumstances, to stop and think before we go and do something stupid; for stupid
things are what we often end up doing, however much we congratulate ourselves on
being rational animals. The books conclusions would appear to be just as valid in
2007 as they were 15 years ago.[My italics.]
In his introduction, Sutherland writes that his purpose is to demonstrate that people
are very much less rational than is commonly thought and to set out systematically
why this is so. Sutherland points out that no-one (including himself) is exempt. I
would suggest that anybody who doubts that people are irrational creatures reads this
book.
There are chapters in the book headed Ignoring the Evidence, Distorting the Evidence,
Misinterpreting the Evidence, and Mistaken Connections in Medicine. Here are some
morals suggested at the end of these chapters:
Search for evidence against your own beliefs.
Dont distort new evidence: consider carefully whether it could be interpreted as
disconfirming your beliefs rather than supporting them.
Be wary of your memory: you are likely to recall whatever fits with your current
views.
Beware of being influenced by any explanations you may have concocted in support
of your own beliefs.
[] Dont trust small samples.
Beware of biased samples.
These are seemingly simple rules, but they are rules that I sometimes find hard to
follow.
The problem, as I see it, is that in order to avoid holding irrational views, one must
first recognise that one is being (or has been) irrational in forming these views.
Identifying yourself as a skeptic is no guarantee of rationality. In fact, I wonder if it
might in some cases lead to complacency. Perhaps if you see yourself as a skeptic and
a critical thinker, you will be more likely than others to see your views as rational
and therefore fail to see the irrationality of some of your views?
I suspect that different people will find some of the rules I listed above easier to
follow than others. They might, say, find it easy to cultivate a healthy skepticism
toward small samples yet trust their memory more than they should.
There is a list of memory biases on Wikipedia which nicely illustrates why we should
be wary of the extent to which we trust our memory. You should perhaps put no more

faith in your memory than you would in the conclusions drawn from a small (or
biased) sample.
The first two rules on Sutherlands list (searching for evidence against your beliefs
and avoiding distorting new evidence) are probably rules I break constantly. Perhaps
not when reading up on the placebo effect, but certainly in other circumstances.
Heres where this skeptic has most recently caught himself out: I watch my local
football team and found myself complaining bitterly about other teams bullying us
on the field by committing clear fouls which are ignored by the referee.
Being interested in irrationality, and having previously commented elsewhere on the
irrationality of football fans, I wondered for a moment whether my views were
coloured by failing to seek out contradictory evidence due to a bias toward the home
team.
I set out to consciously look out for examples of home and opposition centre halves
fouling opposing players and was a little surprised to find that, actually, the home
players committed roughly as many unpunished fouls as the opposition players.
Thats the thing about irrationality you have to be aware of it in order to guard
against it. You have to, for example, force yourself to look for contradictory evidence,
and you must ensure that you do not distort it if and when you find it.
My irrationality in this case may have been more available to me than it would be in
other areas. My being interested in irrationality and aware of the irrationality of sports
fans may have made it easier for me to spot my irrational view of events on the field.
What can we do to avoid falling into irrationality so often? I would guess that being
more aware of the likelihood of doing so may help. Perhaps we should all read
Sutherlands Irrationality once a year simply to remind ourselves of what irrational
creatures we really are?