1 . How do Mercier and Sperber explain cognitive bias? (Why do behaviors that seem bizarre when looked at from a strictly logical standpoint actually make sense when looked at in terms of evolution?) 2. Describe the famous study on students' opinions about capital punishment. What two groups were studied? What kind of data were they shown? How did the students rate the data? What happened when they were asked about their views at the end of the study?

3. Describe the study done by Mercier and some European colleagues. What were participants asked to do? What bias was demonstrated in this study?

4. Why was this kind of thinking advantageous to early humans living in small groups of hunter-gatherers?

5. How does collaboration contribute to the illusion of explanatory depth?

6. Why is incomplete understanding important to the development of new technologies?

7. How does our “dependence on other minds” make things even worse?

8. What happened when Sloman and Fernbach asked people to “explain, in as much detail as they could, the impacts of implementing” specific public policy questions? How did their views change after that step?