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Coronavirus cure

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james_s:
I suspect it's the same part of the brain that is involved in religion, clearly it is more active in some people than others and some of those latch onto something other than one of the prevailing conventional religions. It's futile to argue logic with them because their belief is not based on logic to begin with.

not1xor1:

--- Quote from: SilverSolder on April 04, 2020, 12:47:32 pm ---In the old days, people believed in witchcraft...   in the 50's and 60's, people ended up in mental hospitals thinking they were being controlled by radar, or laser, or any of the technologies that were new at the time.  Today, "the unknowing" worry about cell phone radiation, vaccinations, and any number of other things that they do not have the training or knowledge to understand.  Because they can't trust "experts" (largely due to the Dunning-Kruger effect [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect] one suspects), they end up going with their own superstitions instead.  Sadly, there are so many messed up people like that.  Enough to get leaders of modern countries elected by them...

--- End quote ---

The Dunning-Kruger effect implies that people who have some knowledge about a given matter feel expert in any other subject even when they lack the most basic knowledge. On the other side, people who do not feel knowledgeable are often more expert than they believe (probably because they do not trust their gut feeling and investigate and try to learn from reliable sources).

Belief in conspiracy theories is much more complicate than that. Probably the need to make sense of the unknown or to attribute an agent-driven cause to casual events is part of the problem. Poor economical situation (middle class wiped out by free-market frenzy in the last decades) with the feeling of impotence and lack of control on one's own life also contribute to that.

Last but not the least nowadays there are organizations, think tanks, state-backed trolls, who exploit such social weakness for various reasons, often mixing various paranoid subjects like no-vax, chem-trails, climate denial, etc. just to fuel mistrust in science.

While that sounds like a conspiracy theory itself  ;D it is based on trial evidences and/or government reports.
I'm referring to various Union of Concerned Scientists documents and on EU pages about Russian (and other) trolls spreading fake news and fueling controversies.

SilverSolder:

--- Quote from: not1xor1 on April 05, 2020, 06:10:17 pm ---
The Dunning-Kruger effect implies that people who have some knowledge about a given matter feel expert in any other subject even when they lack the most basic knowledge.[...]

--- End quote ---

Basically, Dunning-Kruger means that idiots tend to be LOUD idiots!  The incompetent overestimate their abilities, and the competent underestimate theirs.

The Wikipedia article has become more mealy mouthed over time. 

From https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-the-dunning-kruger-effect-4160740 -


--- Quote ---The Dunning-Kruger effect is a type of cognitive bias in which people believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are. Essentially, low ability people do not possess the skills needed to recognize their own incompetence. The combination of poor self-awareness and low cognitive ability leads them to overestimate their own capabilities.

The term lends a scientific name and explanation to a problem that many people immediately recognize—that fools are blind to their own foolishness. As Charles Darwin wrote in his book The Descent of Man, "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."
[...]

--- End quote ---

Agree with your other good points.


DrG:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/talking-apes/201801/why-do-people-believe-in-conspiracy-theories

https://physicsworld.com/a/why-do-people-still-believe-in-conspiracy-theories/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-people-believe-in-conspiracy-theories/

...and, of course, a video...she is/was a grad student so I am cutting her slack for the ultra-simplistic communications, plus, I went to her site and she bills herself as a neuroscientist / comedian [and also she is nice to look at].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z98U1nMFrJQ&feature=youtu.be

james_s:
I've noticed this now and then in myself, the more I learn about a topic the more aware I become of just how much more there is to know so the less knowledgeable I feel. Every now and then it sneaks up on me and I realize with some surprise that I really am an expert on one thing or another, though it's usually something obscure with little practical value.

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