THE IRRATIONAL Exclusive Clip: Alec Explains the Dangers of a ‘Faulty Learning Cycle’

THE IRRATIONAL team may have their hands full with a potential disaster in “The Wrong Side of Maybe,” but Alec (Jesse L. Martin) still has time for an important lesson/warning in the Tuesday, November 26 hour of the NBC drama.

“Why do we learn the wrong lessons from low-probability events?” Alec asks his class in the exclusive clip from the episode below. “Take texting and driving. We know it’s a bad idea. So why do so many of us still take that risk?”

“Because we’re irrational in some way you’re about to tell us?” a student deadpans.

Alec chuckles, before acknowledging, “I walked right into that.” But he also admits she’s right.

“Imagine the actual risk of crashing while texting is two percent. And every time you don’t crash, you update your internal risk barometer,” he says, showcasing a graph on a slide. “After a while, you feel so secure that you’re texting even more. This, my friends, is called the ‘faulty learning cycle.’ Our real risk never drops, but our feelings about that risk, based on our limited experience with crashing, lie to us.”

So, he concludes, the next time they text while driving and don’t crash? “Remember: You got lucky.”

Watch the scene now!

Elsewhere in the hour, NBC teases, “Alec and the team work to prevent a looming train disaster. Phoebe, Simon and Rizwan struggle to figure out the new power dynamics between them.” 

THE IRRATIONAL, Tuesdays, 10/9c, NBC

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