badbobby Loc: texas

When something occurs that's hard to explain, many people say that "everything happens for a reason" and that the event was "meant to be."

The thought provides a purpose for what, in reality, was a random, accidental event.

This type of thinking, called teleological thinking, is what gives rise to creationism, which, in this case, refers to the belief that Earth was created by an all-powerful being less than 10,000 years ago. That same kind of reasoning also promotes a belief in conspiracy theories, a new study has found.

"I think the study is a valuable and interesting contribution to work on the ways that our gut intuitions can promote particular non-scientific world views," said Deborah Kelemen, a developmental cognitive scientist at Boston University, who was not involved in the study.

In previous research, lead study author Pascal Wagner-Egger, a social psychologist at the University of Fribourg, and his colleagues found that people who believe in conspiracy theories don’t entirely reject the fact that accidents or random events occur.

"It's not that they reject randomness everywhere, but in some [historical and social] events, they reject randomness by seeing a conspiracy," said Wagner-Egger. "It's as if they were rejecting human randomness or randomness in human events but not in every world event," such as an event in nature, Wagner-Egger told Live Science. [Top 10 Conspiracy Theories]

Wagner-Egger and his colleagues were perplexed by the fact that belief in conspiracy theories wasn't associated with a complete rejection of random events. They suspected it might be because of a teleological bias, or predisposed way of thinking that also leads to a belief in creationism. [Creationism vs. Evolution: 6 Big Battles]

Teleology describes a way of thinking that rejects scientific reasoning but instead readily accepts that events occur because of the purpose they serve.

For example, believing that "the sun rises every day in order to provide daylight," is a teleological thought, which is in opposition to the scientific fact that the sun rises because Earth rotates on its axis every 24 hours. (In Voltaire's satirical novel "Candide," the character Dr. Pangloss takes this type of thinking to its absurd logical conclusions, by arguing that spectacles fit noses because God created noses to fit spectacles.) Teleological thinking is common in childhood, but for many people, it persists into adulthood.

To see if this same method of thinking also triggers a belief in conspiracy theories, the researchers analyzed the results of surveys from three groups: a group of more than 150 Swiss college students; a group of more than 1,200 French adults; and a group of more than 700 French and Swiss college students. Across all of the surveys, participants who said they believed in creationism also tended to believe in well-known conspiracy theories, such as the Apollo 11 moon landing being f**e, or that the U.S. government was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Furthermore, participants who believed in creationism and conspiracy theories were also more likely to respond to questions that indicated clear teleological bias.

Those results were surprising, said Wagner-Egger, because conspir****m and creationism explain two different aspects of the world. "Creationism and teleological thinking are about the natural world, and conspir****m is about social and historical events," he said, but the survey results suggest that teleological thinking spurs both creationism and conspir****m.

The researchers found no relationship between conspir****m or teleological bias and age, g****r, religion or political orientation. But they did find a link with education level. "It is a common finding that the people who are less educated believe more in conspiracy theory," Wagner-Egger said.

It's a matter of not only education but also social status, Wagner-Egger added. Previous research has found that "minority groups and people in the fringe of society believe more in conspiracies because [they're] not in the system," or tied to sources of authority, he said. As a result, they are more inclined to think that leaders and governments are hiding things from them.

Wagner-Egger said it's not bad to think critically about information from sources of authority, but conspir****ts take it too far and focus only on the narrative of a conspiracy, refusing to consider arguments refuting their theories. Conspir****ts "are not skeptical in the right way," Wagner-Egger said. "If you reject all [arguments], we cannot discuss anymore, and it's clearly a problem for years to come," he said.

Growing conspir****m could have severe consequences, Wagner-Egger noted, as conspiracy beliefs are linked with things like v*****e rejection and c*****e c****e denialism. People should be careful when following old beliefs, "because those beliefs are based on our cognitive biases," he said.

"Cognitive biases — like the teleological bias — develop early and are cross-culturally recurrent," Kelemen said. "Given this, we should probably start intervening earlier if we want to effectively promote scientific literacy and reduce non-scientific mindsets, like conspiracy beliefs, that can promote fear and paranoia."

Wagner-Egger and his colleagues published their results Monday (Aug. 20) in the journal Current Biology.

Original article on Live Science.

bahmer

Interesting article there badbobby. Thanks for the info.

pafret Loc: Northeast

We who exhibit cognitive biases should start testing children in kindergarten to identify those who are resistant to considering any possibilities other than what is grounded in the material plane. These children at the very least, lack imagination.

Science and Scientists are totally incapable of identifying any of the first causes of their lexicion, including the fact that there are physical laws governing matter to matter interactions and they never question how or by whom those laws were established. Early intervention is needed to rectify such thinking or tendencies, lest they grow up as deficient adults of the L*****t persuasion.

bahmer

Amen and Amen

badbobby Loc: texas

ognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment, and are often studied in psychology and behavioral economics. Although the reality of these biases is confirmed by replicable research, there are often controversies about how to classify these biases or how to explain them. Some are effects of information-processing rules, called heuristics, that the brain uses to produce decisions or judgments. Biases have a variety of forms and appear as cognitive bias

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

Ok, so, there's no evidence what so ever that actually supports creationism and there is no evidence what so ever that socialism and c*******m can work. How does that happen??

pafret Loc: Northeast

Bias without cognition is a condition of inanimate matter as in the tree is bent, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Brain heurisics based on peception or vision processing is subject to spoofing or deception. Cognition (http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/CognitiveSystems.pdf) implies engaging areas of the brain other than the data perception mechanism and the limbic system. It is instead an amalgam of the perception and limbic functions with learning elements which allow for apperception or ratiocination/cognition.

badbobby Loc: texas

well paf
you finally lost me
too many big words
and I don't have all night to google em

pafret Loc: Northeast

You can fool the senses but thinking usually results in the t***h. (Provided you can think logically) Every once in a while I've got to let a little of that trip lest I exploode.

Peewee Loc: San Antonio, TX

Guess I'll just remain a happy, simple, fundamental, Bible reading, gun-toting, creationist who thinks God spoke it all into existence. Others can believe what they want to.

Justsss Loc: Wisconsin

badbobby, so which one is the Conspiracy Theory? The Warren Commission ( President Kennedy k**led by one crazy Lee Harvey Oswald) OR President Kennedy k**led by the CIA?
The 9-11 Commission ( America’s most defended corridor just doesn’t have any airborne F-16s in the air at the time) OR that something doesn’t seem correct when the BBC announces building 7 has collapsed when it hasn’t yet ?
So do you believe the Govt. conspiracy theory or the other conspiracy theory?
It’s always a conspiracy theory, just who’s are you believing?

Justsss Loc: Wisconsin

Peewee,

bahmer

Amen and Amen

badbobby Loc: texas

Justsss
Although I believe that the majority, if not all politicians lie and contrive untrue stories to cover their butts
I can't accept the theory that the warren Commission would promote a prevarication of what happened when President Kennedy was assassinated,nor when 911 occurred.
There was no(as you implied) Government conspiracy
That is of course just my beliefs
and in no way am I attempting to belittle what you asked

Justsss Loc: Wisconsin

badbobby, my point was that each side presents a Conspiracy Theory. You are expected to believe the Governments idea of what happened, ie: 19 arabs with box cutters did all of this damage to America and by some misunderstanding the F-16s flew the wrong way out to the Ocean ? Really ? Sounds like some sort of Conspiracy within those 19 arabs, yet that’s not a Conspiracy Theory laid out by our Govt. that we should all accept ?
Thanks for not slamming me as most on here do.
I appreciate your constant great signs.