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Believing What You Don’t Believe
- ansible 11y agoReads like a Less Wrong post: http://lesswrong.com/lw/i4/belief_in_belief/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/i4/belief_in_belief/ With people, it seems often to be the case that the fast system is used to make a decision, and then the slow system is used to justify the decision after the fact.
- ikeboy 11y agoWhy can't the explanation for lucky charms be that the other fans are wearing them, and so it's in style, and you gain status by wearing one? That would make wearing them rational.
- DyslexicAtheist 11y agoalso from a SW developers POV: http://blog.valbonne-consulting.com/2014/09/24/flow-the-addiction-behind-programming/ http://blog.valbonne-consulting.com/2014/09/24/flow-the-addi...
- ssivark 11y agoThere are things that science can never "prove wrong", because they aren't set up as falsifiable hypotheses (eg: lucky charm hats). The best that science could do is establish a lack of correlation (assuming a certain set of control factors). Interpreting the result of such an experiment is strongly a function of your null hypothesis (or bayesian prior). It is only by applying the law of the excluded middle that one "reasonably" concludes that a lack of indication is an indication of there being no correlation. Also, the cost of wearing a lucky hat is negligible compared to the happiness gained from your team's victory (and often adds to the atmosphere/excitement). That is why people can "believe" in things that could reasonably be dismissed.
- known 11y agoYour Beliefs Don't Make You A Better Person, Your Behavior Does.