Link to the Show / Show NotesKaren Cerulo discusses her book Never Saw it Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst.
People — especially Americans — are by and large optimists – almost blind optimists. They are much better at imagining best-case scenarios (I could win the lottery!) than worst-case scenarios (A hurricane could destroy my neighborhood!). This is true not just of their approach to imagining the future, but of their memories as well: people are better able to describe the best moments of their lives than they are the worst.
In Never Saw It Coming, Professor Karen Cerulo considers the role of society in fostering this attitude. What kinds of groups and communities develop this pattern of thought, which do not, and what this says about human ability to evaluate possible outcomes of decisions and events.
Cerulo is a Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University. She is also the author of Identity Designs: The Sights and Sounds of a NationDeciphering Violence: The Cognitive Order of Right and Wrong.
Recorded October 24, 2006
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