Tutor profile: Jeanette N.

What makes people believe so many different things about politics, religion, and other subjects that make up the "world view," or the way we think that the world actually is?

While we experience our beliefs as personal phenomena taking place in the isolation of our own minds, beliefs are actually social in nature. For example, there's a lot of overlap between people's religious beliefs and the predominant religions where they were born and grew up. Similarly, in the U.S. urban dwellers are much more likely to identify as politically liberal, while rural residents are generally more conservative. Different environments shape the ideas and experiences people are exposed to, and thus influence the way they see the world. It might seem like the expansion of internet connectivity would erase these differences and bring people together around more blended world views, search engine and website algorithms programmed to show us what we want may actually be exaggerating our differences and driving us further apart.

In the public discourse there are often greatly varying opinions on issues of public policy. Who is to say what the right views are on education, public health, economics, the environment, and other often controversial issues?

While there are many viewpoints on just about anything you can think of, that does not mean that all views are equally valid. Many issues that are treated in public discourse as "just a matter of opinion" actually can be resolved by evidence. Many questions of public policy can best be resolved by looking at the evidence, whether from the physical sciences or from social sciences such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, or economics.

How can we become better at multitasking?

The human brain is actually not capable of multitasking. When we think we are multitasking what we are really doing is jumping quickly from one task to another. The larger the number of tasks we pretend we're doing simultaneiously, the greater the chance of making mistakes. Therefore, whenever possible it is best to concentrate on correctly doing one task at a time instead of messing up multiple tasks at the same time.