Prevalence-induced concept change
The study of Prevalence-induced concept change by David E. Levari as told by Michael Easter in the Huberman Lab Podcast. A group of people were asked to look at 800 faces in a row. The participants had to deem whether these faces were threatening or non-threatening. At the 200th face, the participants were shown fewer threatening faces. For the second study, they had a similar set up but research proposals were used instead. Participants had to deem whether the research proposals were ethical or unethical. About midway through, the participants were shown significantly fewer unethical proposals. Both studies seem simple. Either the faces were threatening or non-threatening and the research proposals were either ethical or unethical based on a persons' moral grounds. However, after the participants were shown fewer threatening faces, they started judging faces that were on the borderline as threatening. Participants said threatening just as many times ...