Robin Hanson on Health Care

Here is a great youtube clip of a Robin Hanson interview, where he mentions of some of the biases that affect our Healthcare decisions and gives an overview of signaling theory. I subscribe to Overcoming Bias and I don't recall this interview being mentioned there at any point, so I will mention it here.

Hanson is a GMU economists and one of the most interesting guests on EconTalk. He's done two podcasts, both of which anyone who finds this clip interesting will enjoy very much. His blog Overcoming Bias is a much read, although I must warn some of Eliezer Yudkowsky's posts can be a little intense for the casually rational reader. Near the end of his recent EconTalk interview, Russ Roberts asks Hanson the reason for wanting to overcome all of our biases if those who are most successful act according to all the signals and seemingly irrational behavior our society rewards. I liked Hanson's response: "If you want understand the world and you don't understand this you will miss a lot... Some of us just want to look the world straight in the eye, see what it is, and even if it isn't a pleasant sight we just want to see." ...So maybe it's fun, but perhaps it's irrational to overcome our biases? Or rather, it's interesting to understand our biases, but generally it's best to act biased anyway. Curious.

Updated My attempt to embed did not work, so just click on the link.