Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
Nobody ever thinks to themselves, “I believe in things that are simply not scientific or true”, but rather we all hold positions that we are sure are correct. If this is indeed the case, then why is there a prevailing confidence in some minds regarding ideas and thoughts that have been truly discredited? … now that actually is … Read more
If there was a topic you knew next to nothing about and perhaps felt negatively about, would you be confident enough to write a newspaper article based solely upon your own specific ignorance of the topic and end up making yourself the target of much well deserved mockery? I think many, if not most, regardless of … Read more
The Endowment Effect, also known as divestiture aversion, is a rather subtle psychological mechanism that is often leveraged to get people to happily act and behave in a specific manner. Now you might be wondering what this means, so lets focus down on that with a specific example workers work harder to maintain ownership of a provisional awarded … Read more
EA Hanks, a writer based in Los Angeles, has written a very personal article in the Guardian that takes us on her journey from Fundamentalist born again Christian to atheist. In it we find two rather common answers to some truly fascinating questions. Why do people convert and become “born again”? After making that emotional investment, … 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
We do not just impart information, but often construct a narrative and tell stories to each other – now here is something odd / amusing / strange / funny / scary that happened to me / a friend / somebody famous – and often when doing so we are simply repeating something we have heard … Read more