The Science of Why We Don't Believe in Science (enemies, global warming, death)
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"A MAN WITH A CONVICTION is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point." So wrote the celebrated Stanford University psychologist Leon Festinger, in a passage that might have been referring to climate change denial—the persistent rejection, on the part of so many Americans today, of what we know about global warming and its human causes. But it was too early for that—this was the 1950s—and Festinger was actually describing a famous case study in psychology.
Festinger and several of his colleagues had infiltrated the Seekers, a small Chicago-area cult whose members thought they were communicating with aliens—including one, "Sananda," who they believed was the astral incarnation of Jesus Christ. The group was led by Dorothy Martin, a Dianetics devotee who transcribed the interstellar messages through automatic writing.
Through her, the aliens had given the precise date of an Earth-rending cataclysm: December 21, 1954. Some of Martin's followers quit their jobs and sold their property, expecting to be rescued by a flying saucer when the continent split asunder and a new sea swallowed much of the United States. The disciples even went so far as to remove brassieres and rip zippers out of their trousers—the metal, they believed, would pose a danger on the spacecraft.
Festinger and his team were with the cult when the prophecy failed. First, the "boys upstairs" (as the aliens were sometimes called) did not show up and rescue the Seekers. Then December 21 arrived without incident. It was the moment Festinger had been waiting for: How would people so emotionally invested in a belief system react, now that it had been soundly refuted?
At first, the group struggled for an explanation. But then rationalization set in. A new message arrived, announcing that they'd all been spared at the last minute. Festinger summarized the extraterrestrials' new pronouncement: "The little group, sitting all night long, had spread so much light that God had saved the world from destruction." Their willingness to believe in the prophecy had saved Earth from the prophecy!...
It's been explained before but never so clearly (or at least I hadn't previously seen it done) so the article is a great read and well worth your time. Learn why so many other wise intelligent people believe some utterly stupid things which are completely contradictory to the facts or to logic itself. It's almost a text book on the right wing mind and its major dysfunction.
It's almost a text book on the right wing mind and its major dysfunction.
Hopefully you realize that by thinking this behavior is part of "the right wing mind", rather than all parts of the political spectrum, you are operating with the same mindless conviction described in the article.
The right-winged mind? You better get a better grasp of the Democrat utopia that doesn't exist, yet they will promise it to you for a vote. AGW comes to mind about lefties here too, ignore ALL scientists who have a differing opinion just to have people around you that agrees with your position. Who has the major dysfunction again?
Like le roi just pointed out, this happens all over the spectrum.
Hopefully you realize that by thinking this behavior is part of "the right wing mind", rather than all parts of the political spectrum, you are operating with the same mindless convinction.
Oh, yes, there are left wingers who also hold irrational beliefs but they are the exception where as the right wing in America is completely, totally, utterly dominated by this type of behavior. Death panels, climate denial, religious nonsense... The American right wing is drowning in irrationality. There simply isn't another large group which is so completely steep in this sort of behavior. Not even by an order of magnitude.
BTW since both of you responded with in 3 minutes I take it you didn't even read the article? This was all explained in it so maybe, just maybe you should read it before you comment? Or is that asking too much?
Oh, yes, there are left wingers who also hold irrational beliefs but they are the exception where as the right wing in America is completely, totally, utterly dominated by this type of behavior.
You are continuing to exhibit signs of the same psychological issue that is described in the OP. In this case you perhaps are not like the people who think aliens are going to come save us, but rather, most of what you think you know about conservative thought comes from biased sources with the goal of persuading you.
What is fascinating to me is that you understand the concept, and yet still fall victim to it.
It's been explained before but never so clearly (or at least I hadn't previously seen it done) so the article is a great read and well worth your time. Learn why so many other wise intelligent people believe some utterly stupid things which are completely contradictory to the facts or to logic itself. It's almost a text book on the right wing mind and its major dysfunction.
The right-winged mind? You better get a better grasp of the Democrat utopia that doesn't exist, yet they will promise it to you for a vote. AGW comes to mind about lefties here too, ignore ALL scientists who have a differing opinion just to have people around you that agrees with your position. Who has the major dysfunction again?
Like le roi just pointed out, this happens all over the spectrum.
I can think of no finer example to prove the thesis of the article than you.
Actually I can, but you are the one that showed up in the thread.
Consider this:
Convictions are more dangerous enemies of the truth than lies.
I can think of no finer example to prove the thesis of the article than you.
Actually I can, but you are the one that showed up in the thread.
Consider this:
Convictions are more dangerous enemies of the truth than lies.
F. Nietzsche
Send that to the IPCC and all the other relig-scientists that are out to scam the world for money and power.
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The Science of Why We Don't Believe in Science
