Paris - USI 2012 Session

To err is human. Yet most of us go through life tacitly assuming (and sometimes noisily insisting) that we are right about nearly everything, from the origins of the universe to how to load the dishwasher. If being wrong is so natural, why are we all so bad at imagining that our beliefs could be mistaken – and why do we typically react to our errors with surprise, denial, defensiveness and shame?

In this presentation, Kathryn Schulz will discuss why we find it so gratifying to be right and so maddening to be mistaken, and how this attitude toward error negatively affects our relationships—whether between family members, colleagues, neighbors, or nations. Ultimately, she will challenge her audience to let go of their attachment to being right, embrace their own fallibility, and learn to ask one of life's most challenging and important questions: what if I’m wrong?