Did you get a rush out of believing things everyone else told you were false?


#############


https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/why-facts-dont-change-our-minds

In “Denying to the Grave: Why We Ignore the Facts That Will Save Us” (Oxford), Jack Gorman, a psychiatrist, and his daughter, Sara Gorman, a public-health specialist, probe the gap between what science tells us and what we tell ourselves. Their concern is with those persistent beliefs which are not just demonstrably false but also potentially deadly, like the conviction that vaccines are hazardous. Of course, what’s hazardous is not being vaccinated; that’s why vaccines were created in the first place. “Immunization is one of the triumphs of modern medicine,” the Gormans note. But no matter how many scientific studies conclude that vaccines are safe, and that there’s no link between immunizations and autism, anti-vaxxers remain unmoved.

***

The Gormans, too, argue that ways of thinking that now seem self-destructive must at some point have been adaptive. And they, too, dedicate many pages to confirmation bias, which, they claim, has a physiological component. They cite research suggesting that people experience genuine pleasure—a rush of dopamine—when processing information that supports their beliefs. “It feels good to ‘stick to our guns’ even if we are wrong,” they observe.

I also feel that it's constant indoctrination. People tend to favor media that reinforces their beliefs. I remember trying to correct someone's beliefs about urban education (having taught in a wide variety of urban schools for nearly 30 years now,) and he wasn't having it because he "read an article" that stated otherwise.

Look at the Mormon church. Few churches indoctrinate to the degree that the Mormons do.

The anti-vaxx sentiments started out with one rogue researcher who nowadays admits that he was wrong. But the damage that he did persists to this day.

Thanks for this article. It's very well-researched and confirms much of what I've read on the subject (Oops! Did I just show a confirmation bias?)

I've read several articles similar lately. Knowing how things work doesn't change much it seems.

Life is a buffet. Pick and choose what you want on your plate. What looks yummy. Dopamine yummy. Choose with your eyes, your emotions. Choosing with reason will only yield a plate of boiled spinach, steamed fish, whole grains and Kale for dessert. Why go to the buffet at all?

Facts are nice but a twice baked potato with extra bacon is better.

Just kidding. It seems like inoculation of self, soul, and kids seem to be large topics. I would never teach my kids that there is a God centered law for polygamy.

I mean, if you say so, that's up to you. That doesn't make it right. D&C 132 is just one fat ball of wax. I figure that when I learned the doctrine (by reading all the way through my triple), there seemed to be a notice that hey, you can be like Abraham!

What people don't realize, is that when you go to the temple, you make covenants between God, angels, and witnesses. All three can be in any dispensation, according to the Mormons.

But the whole endowment ceremony is about the Old Testament, like most of the D&C. With characters replaced into different time periods. Like the bestowal of the Aaronic Priesthood. You have an angel bestow it, and if I recall correctly, it was John the Baptist.

Many of the miracles are bunk. Especially when the whole D&C is gone through start to finish. I read the entire book of scriptures in 3 days. It did nothing for me, because I felt my beliefs crumbling.

People *do* ignore facts. People deny the fact that it's the God of the Old Testament, mixed with some new stuff, to make it all mesh. Jesus is called Jehovah for a reason, due to the fact that he is a demi God, back in the old testament. And that Adam is called The Archangel. Besides being myth, most people do not get it's all in the past.

I also saw this but haven't had time (I'm 'retired, D'oh) to re read & process it.

I love reading the NYT, regardless of the right-wing trolling objections...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2025 12:58AM by GNPE.

I call it "Selective Reasoning". Once a person decides on how they would like to view the world, they then only give attention to the facts or information that supports their world view. Anything else is dismissed quickly.

It takes very strong, brave, objective, individuals to stand for the facts only regardless of the direction it leads.

Just like the movie A Few Good Men, "You Can't Handle The Truth!"

Still a man hears what he wants to hear
and disregards the rest.

The Boxer - Song by Simon and Garfunkel

The thing is, ignoring facts works out very well for many many people. To ignore or not to ignore. Tbat is the question.