NationStates Jolt Archive

Well, I busted into my psych book and decided, I'm gonna put this little fellow up.

(All evidence is derived from several well respected psychological studies, namely: Lester, 2000; Lord and Others, 1979; Ross and Anderson, 1982; Zusne and Jones, 1989; Jones and Russel, 1980; Gilovich, 1997.)

First statement: Once a belief in pseduoscience or unrealistic situations is established, the presentation of contradictory evidence often has little impact. (Lester, 2000)

Second statement: Contradictory evidence can actually make a belief in such stronger (Lord and Others, 1979)

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Reasons for such:

The Belief-Bias Effect
-The bbe occurs when people accept only the evidence that conforms to their belief, rejecting or ignoring any evidence that does not. (Jones and Russel, 1980)

Confirmation Bias
-CB is the strong tendency to search for information or evidence that confirms a belief, while making little or no effort to search for information taht might disprove the belief. (Gilovich, 1997)

The Fallacy of Positive Instances
-The FPI is the tendency to remember uncommon events that seem to confirm our belifs and to forget events that disconfirm our beliefs. (Gilovich, 1997)

The Overestimation Effect
-The tendency to overestimate the rarity of events is referred to as the OE.

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A Good Thing

Critically thinking about the evidence

On the one hand it is important to keep an open mind. Simply dismissing the impossible shuts out the consideration of evidence for new and potentially promising ideas or phenomenon.

On the other hand, it is importanat to remain skeptical.

Overall Source:
Hockenbury and Hockenbury. "Psychology: Third Edition." 2003

*I bump my special post*

Because people are not, on the whole, taught the value of critical reasoning or even introduced to the skills which comprise it.

Because good pseudoscience is so damn cool, sometimes you want it to be true. And people with a lack of common sense/logical reasoning, they just decide that it must be.

I'd be interested in seeing someone who believes in say, astrology or ESP respond to this. I want to see their response, I might talk about it in my psych paper.

*bump...again*

I'd be interested in seeing someone who believes in say, astrology or ESP respond to this. I want to see their response, I might talk about it in my psych paper.
Esp is real dude! I knew this guy once that could tell me what I am thinking!

And I heard about this study some famous person did that I cant remember and they said that esp is 125 percent true

(joke if u don’t get it)

Esp is real dude! I knew this guy once that could tell me what I am thinking!

And I heard about this study some famous person did that I cant remember and they said that esp is 125 percent true

(joke if u don’t get it)
I do, I do.

Cool-I have a tendancy to want to look for why what I think doesn't or might not work. According to that model I'm doing okay.

A friend of my calls the phenomenon you posted about the 'Least plausibility test.' The idea is that we have reached a point where the only test of any idea or claim is if it can sound at the very least feasible, if it sounds like it could happen transfers to it did happen with little intervening.

I think often people believe in conspiracy theory and pseudo science because it allows them to be experts, or at least knowledgable about something without having to submit to the rigours of proper academic work.

I have recently encountered the work of Von Daniken (Chariots of the Gods) The nut who claims that civilization was brought to earth by aliens. This work was inspired by his time spent travelling, and in a way characteristic of works of pseudo-science, it refers very little to earlier archaeological work done in the areas he 'Investigates', and ignores completely any evidence which disputes his hypotheses.

Note: this is my impression from a partial reading of Von Danikens work, I do not currently have time to look into it further