Psychological Biases in the Era of Nuclear Weapons and AI

April 15
44 mins

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Episode Description

Political psychologist Rose McDermott discusses her article on how systematic judgment biases can undermine nuclear deterrence and strategic stability, especially under emerging technologies like AI. McDermott explains Kahneman's Type 1 (fast, intuitive) versus Type 2 (slow, analytical) thinking and how four biases—overconfidence, the planning fallacy, the illusion of validity, and the prominence effect—can distort leaders' crisis decisions, probability judgments, and security trade-offs.

Hosts: Sheena Chestnut Greitens and Ryan Vest

Producer: Jordan Morning

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