Want More Proof That Correlation Is Overrated?

As a behavioral scientist, I have long been interested in self-deception. But I’ve never thought about it this way before, as pictured in a tremendous drawing by Jonathan Bartlett: (Click here to view comments)

A scandal is rocking Egypt, now that word has spread that those unsightly bandages on Anwar el-Balkimy’s face weren’t there because he got beaten by a masked gunman but, instead, because he had had (horror of horrors!) plastic surgery—a procedure which many people in the conservative Islamist party that el-Balkimy belongs to considered to be “sinful.”
But the real scandal? His lies were brought to light by the doctors who performed the procedure, physicians who were so aghast at his brazen falsehoods that they unhesitantly violated doctor-patient confidentiality.
Read more…

Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in what the World Economic Forum founder, Klaus Schwab, described as the planet’s largest brainstorming session. Approximately 700 leading thinkers (and me, too) converged upon Dubai to discuss the greatest economic challenges facing the world, from the current economic crisis to future crises. People from 6 continents…