©THEBRIGHT EXAM STUDY SOLUTIONS 8/22/2024 12:54 PM
PSCI:210 FINAL Exam Questions With
Correct Answers
How does Jacobs define discipline? - answer✔✔Routine or norms meant to improve or help you
in some way (like going to the gym!)
What is the book about? - answer✔✔Little book presumptuous title. Many scholarly and
contemporary references, more than just a "How to" book. More about understanding how and
why people think the way they do. We've all asked ourselves, "how could anyone think like
that?" when we find someone's behavior to be outrageous.
There are two systems of thinking: System 1 thinking.... - answer✔✔System one is intuitive
thinking. The main way we think "I need a car, therefore, I'll buy a car" Helps reduce cognitive
load by simplifying complex things very quickly. (e.g. If there's a long line at the cafe, I'll eat
elsewhere" This kind of thinking can be destructive because it is where prejudices like racism,
sexism, etc. can form.
System 2 thinking... - answer✔✔System two thinking is slow and analytical. Involves thinking
critically, it makes us confront our prejudices and instinctual nature.
Use both! - answer✔✔We have to use both systems on a daily basis, but it's better for us to use
system two thinking, as long as it's not used to make sure the Moon land is not fake for example.
Reactions to new thinking: Refutation mode... - answer✔✔A form of system one thinking, once
you hear something you don't like, you enter this state and block anything else that is being said
No Listening equals No Thinking. To enter refutation mode is to say, in effect, that you've
already done all the thinking you need to do, that no further information or reflection is required.
Repugnant Cultural Other (RCO) - answer✔✔Another form of system one thinking,
rejecting/being hostile to someone because they do not share similarities with you. Helps identify
the problems that we have. This is an unhealthy situation, mainly because it prevents us from
recognizing others as our neighbors. For example, if I'm consumed by this belief that another
person is both repugnant and a other, I may never discover that we have things in common.
Sometimes we forget that political, social, and religious differences are not the whole of human
experience.
Example of RCO - answer✔✔Megan Phelps-Roper, a member of Westboro Baptist Church, her
RCO was the gay community. Her system two confrontation was Abitbol, who asked her on
Twitter, "how can you hope for the gays redemption if they are killed?"
, ©THEBRIGHT EXAM STUDY SOLUTIONS 8/22/2024 12:54 PM
Another example - answer✔✔Sarah Silverman was attacked on Twitter for being Jewish, and
replies to the hater with genuine concern, even offering to pay for their therapy, again system
two puncturing system one.
Jacobs claims thinking for yourself is impossible, why? - answer✔✔It's considered harmful, as it
assumes that we know everything and can't learn anything new. Megan Phelps-Roper didn't start
"thinking for herself", she started thinking with different people. Since thinking is social, often
times when someone departs from what we believe to be the "true path" our tendency is to look
for bad influences.
Thinking with Different people and Rational Thinking - answer✔✔Understanding the different
experiences of the same events with different people. For example, a mother might not like the
movie Everything Everywhere All at Once for its nonsensical story while their daughter would
enjoy the movie for its underlying themes.
Analytical thinking -being smart- isn't enough - answer✔✔It takes a certain "character" and a
emotional capacity to think well consistently. Thinking well involves more than just analytical
thinking (being smart). In order to think well, one must be rational, and being rational requires
the suppression of all feelings, according to Jacobs.
Example, Wilt Chamberlain - answer✔✔One of the best basketball players, but wasn't the best at
free throws. When recommended to underhand his throws to increase his stats, he rejected it in
preference for looking cool. Not every single approach will work the same way because
everyone thinks differently.
YPU Debate Club - answer✔✔A club at Yale that partakes in debates casually instead of
competitively. As Jacobs puts it "At the end of a debate, no one won and no points were
rewarded." It was competitive in a different way, when they kept score it counted in converts.
What really mattered was if you won someone over and for something you actually believed in.
Leah Lebresco was an atheist at a very Catholic and Orthodox Christian University, she didn't
have ready refutations on their views which didn't matter until she joined this club.
Getting broken on the floor - answer✔✔Having your opinions changed in the middle of debate,
but requires emotional availability and intellectual vulnerability to be open to being wrong about
something.
To bind and to blind - answer✔✔Basically refers to how constant system two thinking can drain
us, so we make friend groups with similarities (bind), that could create echo chambers of likes
and dislikes, but could turn us against others with different likes (bind) but could not properly
look for things that could be wrong about it (blind spot).
Inner rings - answer✔✔C.S. Lewis came up with this idea when he was in boarding school
where roughhousing boys made him feel excluded. We will always be in some inner rings during
our lives, but these rings harden thinking, where members conform in order to belong. Basically,
it's hard to think when belonging is contingent on conformity. In our textbook Jacobs talks about
