Believing
Page 30
studies on positive aspects of religion, 95–96
See also God, belief in; and specific religions, i.e., Christianity, Islam, etc.
remembering, selective. See memory
repetition and indoctrination by others, 195–96
representation
beliefs stored in the brain, 106–108, 123–25, 126, 145, 183, 213
and brain reading, 156, 157, 161, 163–64
spatial representation, 123
and stories/models, 119, 169
and triggering, 183, 184
repression, 42
“responsible parenting” as a form of indoctrination, 195
Restoration of the Ten Commandments cult, 193
retaliation, 175–>76
reverse engineering, 132
rewards. See pleasure
Rio Bec B (lost city in Mexico), search for, 150–51
rituals and indoctrination by others, 193, 196
rock-art paintings in Australia, 77–79
Rome, ancient, 103
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, differing views about, 41
Rosenhan, David, 84–85
Russian cultural myth, 44–45
Russian Revolution, justification for, 30
Ryle, Gilbert, 104, 106
Saint Kitts and study of vervet monkeys, 11–13, 167, 183, 189–91, 213
Salem, Massachusetts, 46–47
Sapin, Steven, 54
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 72
Satan and religious myths, 46–47
scams, vulnerability to, 24
schizophrenia in remission, 84–85
Schliemann, Heinrich, 67
scientific thinking, 57
postmodernist beliefs about, 59–61
religion as an exception to science, 87–98
scientific method, 90–93, 95–96, 97–98
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. See SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)
secondary sources, 65–66
seeing what we believe, 77–85, 149, 202
selective interpretation, 20
selective remembering, 70. See also memory
self-appraisal, 105
self-assurance, 28
self-attribution, 163
self-deception, 60, 72, 170
self-indoctrination, 192, 196–97
self-reflection, 192
self-righteousness, 202, 208
sensory integration, 109
serotonin, 14–16, 136, 146
SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), 32–33
Shackleton, Ernest, 27
Shakespeare, William, 68
shared belief system. See groups sharing beliefs
Shaw, George Bernard, 44
Shermer, Michael, 37–38, 82
short-wave radio. See media and technology
Simons, Daniel, 64–65
Singer, Peter, 30
situational beliefs, 101, 106, 107–108, 120
situational cognition, 196
skepticism, believing in, 33
snakes, poisonous, 150–51, 179, 184
social beliefs, 73, 74–75
social membership and belief, 25–26
See also groups sharing beliefs
social choice, 109
social communication, 181, 185, 205
socialization, 133, 135–36, 137, 173
responses to social stimuli/triggers, 181–86
Socrates, 101
software rules for computer communications, 80–84
Somalia, 29–30
“someone else’s child,” persistent belief of being, 9–10, 100, 213
sources of evidence, 57–75
South Carolina, and antievolution, 52
Spenser, Edmund, 68
Spinoza, Baruch, 101, 102
spiritualism as pseudoscience, 53
Spitz, Rene, 156
“Squaring Off on Education” (Wall Street Journal), 212
Stanley, Henry Morton, 28
statistics vs. stories, 37
status, serotonin levels linked to, 15–16
stigmata as pseudoscience, 53, 54
stimulus, 120, 126, 143, 180–81
responses to social stimuli/triggers, 181–86
Stonehenge, 92
stories and storytelling, 37, 43, 59, 60, 61, 167–73, 178, 194, 209, 213
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 30
strategy choice, 145
stress, 21, 72, 95, 112, 187, 208
struggle, beliefs associated with, 30
submission, receiving displays of, 15
symbols, 46, 49, 106, 173, 177, 195, 208
tarot cards as pseudoscience, 53, 54
telegraph. See media and technology
teleportation as pseudoscience, 52–53, 54
television. See media and technology
temporal lobe, 111
Texas, and antievolution, 52
theory influencing observation, 37
Theory of mind/brain, 144, 153–59, 163, 164, 169, 171
brain reading, 155, 156, 157, 158–59, 160–61, 162–63, 164, 169, 172, 178, 194, 209, 213
extended mind hypothesis, 180
See also brain
thing-in-itself. See objective reality
Thinking Fast and Slow (Kahneman), 38
thinking process, 111–13, 194
children able to think before able to speak, 174
critical thinking, 74
rational thinking, 38, 39, 70
See also cognition; reasoning
Thomas (on Saint Kitts), 189–91
Thomas Aquinas, Saint, 54, 101
thoughtful decisions and beliefs, 119–20
Timbuktu, stories about, 173
time-compact present, 209–10, 212
Tinbergen, Nicholas, 180
Tohoku-Oki earthquake, 209–10
tool kits, 64, 80, 133, 147–48, 151, 154, 169, 173, 177, 185, 201
tools, use of by human ancestors, 133, 134, 142
“top-down” models, 177
Toscanelli, Paolo dal Pozzo, 50
Trafalgar, battle of, 44
transcendental meditation, 95
transient beliefs, 28
translation obstacles to storytelling, 171
trial-and-error experience, 62
triggering, 144, 179–87, 213
frightening triggers, 184, 186
and indoctrination by others, 192
spreading through groups, 187
Troy, discovery of, 67
trust
belief based on trust, 18, 46
and oxytocin levels, 111, 133
truth
beliefs becoming truths, 33, 192, 194, 195
objective truth, 59
“truth purveyors,” 66
Turkey, belief in evolution, 52
TV. See media and technology
UFOs, 94
Ugandan cult, 193
uncertainty, 21, 95, 108, 110, 112, 143, 147, 192, 201, 202, 209
intransigent beliefs reducing, 191
overlapping of ambiguity and uncertainty, 143, 150–52 (see also ambiguity)
and stress, 112
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe), 30
United States, belief in evolution in, 52
University of Oregon Belief System Survey, 34
US Constitution, 42
vain brain, 37
vampires as pseudoscience, 53
ventromedial prefrontal cortex, 110
Vere, Captain (fictional character), 72
vervet monkeys, 11–13, 116, 167, 183, 189–91, 213
serotonin levels in, 14–15
Vespucci, Amerigo, 50
violation of beliefs, 30
voluntary choice, 121–23
Wallace, Lord Alfred Russel, 54
Wall Street Journal (newspaper), 212
Walsh, G. L., 78
wandering brain, 112
wars and conflicting beliefs, 27
Waterloo Campaign, 44
weak-willed brain, 37
well-being, measuring, 140
Wellington, Duke of, 44
West Africa and study of vervet monkeys, 167, 182–83
West Nile virus, 87
whisper game, 170
Why People Believe Weird Things (Shermer), 37
wide divides, 20
impact of emotions on, 110
inability to widen divides by changing one’s mind, 201–202
and mirroring, 161
no evidence supporting belief, 101–102
in postmodernist thinking, 59
widening divides by not repeatedly confirming data, 60
See also divides; narrow divides
Wikipedia, 34
witches, 46–47
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 101
Wolff, Christian Freiherr von, 102
women and the right to vote, 45
working memory, 147–48, 177
Wright brothers, 28
wrong beliefs, 31–32, 70, 158
wrong formula for spheres, 83
X, Mrs., 9–10, 100, 213
Yeats, William Butler, 44