Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
Cognitive Dissonance is of course the term used to describe the mental stress that will arise when an existing belief is confronted with information that conflicts with the belief. It is perhaps logical and rational to assume that things should play out like this … For example somebody declares … “The world will end tomorrow“ When tomorrow … Read more
Well I’m back from my travels in the wilderness, so let’s begin slowly with an easy question – Who is the one person that is most probably going to fool you? You can most probably guess the right answer, but let me illustrate it anyway. One evening I just happened to by in a town … Read more
The following picture of a hunter posing next to his latest kill was posted to Facebook. In it you can see that some poor animal has been slaughtered to the great delight of the hunter … Yes yes, I know, it is satire, what you can rapidly discern (I hope) is that this is photo of … Read more
I’m attempting to write a few notes on the JREF Million dollar paranormal challenge as it actually happens here at #TAM2014, and so right now I’m sitting here on the front row waiting for things to start. Every year at TAM (The Amazing Meeting) a live million dollar paranormal challenge is conducted and anybody who … Read more
Yea hey … its #TAM2014 time (hint the twitter hash tag is #TAM2014 … ah but that is how you found this perhaps). OK first point, this is not an official guide, just a few (hopefully brief) notes that will hopefully help you to not just survive, but thrive. What is happening where and when? Surf on … Read more
There are some individuals who, when confronted with facts that clearly conflict with a belief, will become even more entrenched within the belief, not less. The observation that this happens is known as the backfire effect. The “backfire effect” is a name that was first coined by Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler, for the finding that, given evidence against … Read more