The Psychology Behind Rory Stewart Dismissing Gary Stevenson

Three months ago I made this video.
Then this week Gary Stevenson released a response to how the establishment treats economists like him, and this felt like the right companion piece.
Because this video isn't about Gary specifically, it's about the science of why this keeps happening.
0:00 - Intro / why I'm re-releasing this (Gary Stevenson companion piece)
1:30 - The comforting idea: put clever people in a room, get clever answers (The Rest Is Politics / Rory & Alistair framing)
3:00 - Introducing homophily: people like people like themselves
4:00 - Francis Galton's cow: uncorrelated error and the wisdom of crowds
5:00 - The Sutton Trust stat: 7% privately educated vs 40% in positions of power
6:00 - Liu Hong & Scott Page: why the diverse team beats the brilliant team
8:30 - The Rory Stewart / Zach Polanski clip and the "where are the professors" moment
11:30 - Motivated reasoning and why Rory forgot Gary went to Oxford
12:15 - The Gary Stevenson Oxford clip and being wrong for ten years and not noticing
15:30 - Abraham Wald and the bullet holes: the danger of survivor data
17:30 - Why this matters: the most dangerous errors never make it into the room
18:30 - Rory isn't failing a moral test. He's failing a measurement problem.

References:
Sutton Trust on Private Education and Public Life (2019)
Liu Hong & Scott Page on Groups of Diverse Problem Solvers (PNAS, 2004)
Abraham Wald on survivorship bias research (WWII Statistical Research Group)I’m Barry Ferns – a comedian whose personal journey through failure, homelessness, and rebuilding led me to explore the socio and behavioural economics of inequality.

This channel digs into how systems of power shape our identity, behaviour, and beliefs, and how we can shift the stories we tell ourselves and each other about poverty, inequality, and who’s to blame.

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