Michael Shermer: The pattern behind self-deception

Michael Shermer says the human tendency to believe strange things -- from alien abductions to dowsing rods -- boils down to two of the brain's most basic, hard-wired survival skills. He explains what they are, and how they get us into trouble.

As founder and publisher of Skeptic Magazine, Michael Shermer has exposed fallacies behind intelligent design, 9/11 conspiracies, the low-carb craze, alien sightings and other popular beliefs and paranoias. But it's not about debunking for debunking's sake. Shermer defends the notion that we can understand our world better only by matching good theory with good science. Thus, in order to explore a conspiracy theory that pre-planted explosives caused the World Trade Center towers to fall on 9/11, the magazine called on demolition experts.

Shermer's work offers cognitive context for our often misguided beliefs: In the absence of sound science, incomplete information can powerfully combine with the power of suggestion (helping us hear Satanic lyrics when "Stairway to Heaven" plays backwards, for example). In fact, a common thread that runs through beliefs of all sorts, he says, is our tendency to convince ourselves: We overvalue the shreds of evidence that support our preferred outcome, and ignore the facts we aren't looking for.
"Michael Shermer, as head of one of America's leading skeptic organizations, and as a powerful activist and essayist in the service of this operational form of reason, is an important figure in American public life."
Stephen Jay Gould

View the original here : http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_shermer_the_pattern_behind_self_deception.html

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Science & Technology

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• MichaelShermer
• 2010

[AlienScientist]

Michael Shermer LOL... Consider his ideas but supplement them with a healthy amount of Heidegger. That is... if you want REAL philosophy and not just an establishment ass kisser like Shermer telling you what or what not to believe.

Read the Mind War Documents or learn something about Psychological Operations, and by all means, check the technical papers and evidence on AE911Truth. org Learn about the PATTERNS BEHIND MASS DECEPTION.

[ZuluFightrunner]

@AlienScientist Very disappointed that you didn't fit in a "WAKE UP PEOPLE" like most 911 truthers.

[AlienScientist]

@ZuluFightrunner, I am nothing like your propaganda generated delusion of what a "911 truther" is... LOL

[ZuluFightrunner]

@AlienScientist Nice assertions you throw in there. How do you know where I get my impression of truthers from?. Its comes from my interactions with them but its always so great that you guys know our minds inside out without ever engaging in a discussion. But like the truthers I have experienced you did CAPITALIZE CERTAIN WORDS FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT.

[someThinkingApe]

@AlienScientist No thank you, I don't like nazis.

[wolfwing1]

heh with the dalmation I saw a cheetah/leopard the other way :>

[volound]

i thought you had already uploaded this, but this one is different. lol.