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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
 Posted - 11/05/2007 : 08:59:56
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This is a neat article by Joe Miller of www.factcheck.org in response to the article that ran in September in the Post about how debunking myths can often cause a myth to be re-enforced.
An exerpt: In 1641, French philosopher René Descartes suggested that the act of understanding an idea comes first; we accept the idea only after evaluating whether or not it rings true. Thirty-six years later, the Dutch philosopher Baruch de Spinoza offered a very different account of belief formation. Spinoza proposed that understanding and believing happen simultaneously. We might come to reject something we held to be true after considering it more carefully, but belief happens prior to the examination. On Spinoza's model, the brain forms beliefs automatically. Rejecting a belief requires a conscious act.
Unfortunately, not everyone bothers to examine the ideas they encounter. On the Cartesian model, that failure results in neither belief nor disbelief. But on the Spinozan model we end up with a lot of unexamined (and often false) convictions.
One might rightly wonder how a 17th-century philosophical dispute could possibly be relevant to modern myth-busting. Interestingly, though, Harvard psychologist Daniel T. Gilbert designed a series of experiments aimed specifically at determining whether Descartes or Spinoza got it right. Gilbert's verdict: Spinoza is the winner. People who fail to carry through the evaluation process are likely to believe whatever statements they read. Gilbert concludes that “[p]eople do have the power to assent, to reject, and to suspend their judgment, but only after they have believed the information to which they have been exposed.”
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http://www.factcheck.org/specialreports/cognitive_science_and_factcheckorg_or_why_we.html
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"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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Edited by - marfknox on 11/05/2007 09:11:58
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2007 : 10:49:57 [Permalink]
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| So is the post saying that we shouldnt try? Interesting topic... |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2007 : 10:52:19 [Permalink]
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| maybe reverse psychology would work |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2007 : 11:23:53 [Permalink]
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| Yeah, make Christianity an exclusive club like Studio 54, then everyone will want in. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2007 : 12:01:52 [Permalink]
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OFFC wrote: | maybe reverse psychology would work |
Not sure how this relates to the topic. |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2007 : 12:23:08 [Permalink]
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My stance is pretty much my personal dogma: Always go for the facts. They may hurt, they may even make you miserable, or confuse you, but without the facts, our brain is no better than that of Pseudotribos robustus, which (as I explained) was ". . . only useful for inventing puns and remembering grudges."
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2007 : 07:18:54 [Permalink]
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Right. I mean, if there were no place for me to find out about, say, that lame (but often STILL parroted) line that Gore said he "invented the internet," then I'd be stuck. So while at first I may believe that, after finding out the facts, I'm no longer going to.
My guess is that people for whom fact-checking articles only reinforce the myth are people who haven't bothered to really look at it and are all too happy to believe the myth in the first place. |
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Why FactCheck.org persists, despite Post article
