Bias Bingo: How Cognitive Bias Generates Belief

This video presents a case study of a typical (in fact, randomly selected) talk from the LDS General Conference. Throughout the talk, we pick out textbook bases of psychological manipulation, and show how they are used to instill ill-founded beliefs into the audience.

This demonstration represents how virtually all religious beliefs are generated. Basic human cognitive bias is brazenly exploited, while objective skepticism is frowned upon or ignored. Because the entire process is inherently manipulative and dishonest, such activity only serves as evidence against the integrity of religious beliefs.

All video of Dallin Oaks is taken WITHOUT permission from www.lds.org, and used under the criticism clause of the Fair Use Act. If the owners of this material wish me to remove it, please contact me.

This video is provided copyright free for educational purposes only. You may freely download it and copy it.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• mormon
• lds
• psychology
• psychological
• cognitive
• bias
• manipulation
• exploitation
• religious
• belief
• generation

[justafrinian]

This video is cognative bias. Everything is pulled into a nice conclusion at the end when we have heard no arguments from the other side. Jumping to conclusions and by giving them 'fancy labels' doesn't mean what the speaker argues is true. On the other hand you made some good arguments-- too bad they were so biased.

[AntiCitizenX]

@justafrinian

Justin... they aren't just "fancy labels." They are the actual technical terms used by social psychologists. Each of these effects carries a demonstrable capacity to skew beliefs and behavior. There are whole mountains of experimental data on this stuff.

However, to be fair, this video is admittedly "just for the lol's." If you want a serious argument, then watch the entire Psychology of Belief series. There is very little joking around in those.

[ChildePC]

Except..... PSYCHOLOGY AND SCIENCE IN GENERAL DOES NOT GO OUT OF ITS WAY TO DISPROVE RELIGION, YOUR OWN BIAS IS ALSO INVOLVED IN COMMITTING US TO BELIEVE WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY IN A PRIDEFUL WAY. I GUESS I GET SOME POINTS ON MY BOARD AS WELL.

[AntiCitizenX]

@ChildePC

"PSYCHOLOGY AND SCIENCE IN GENERAL DOES NOT GO OUT OF ITS WAY TO DISPROVE RELIGION"

Actually, they do.

"YOUR OWN BIAS..."

Then don't listen to me. Listen to the evidence. And if there is no evidence, then reject the belief.

[bjjolley]

I have probably watched this video 30 times by now, and linked it all over the place. This and your many other videos are magnificent.

[AntiCitizenX]

@bjjolley

Thank you!

[nichtmuttersprachler]

(2) ... reinforces belief through the insufficient justification effect. The fact that everyone else is singing probably promotes belief through the bandwagon effect, even if the majority opinion is falsely assumed because of the false consensus effect. Though experiencing music and singing in groups is already likely to stir strong feelings even in non-religious settings, individuals may falsely attribute these feelings to "the presence of the holy spirit" because of patternicity.

[nichtmuttersprachler]

(1) I went to a Christmas church service with my family tonight and did something similar to bias bingo. Observing the service from a social psychological perspective was actually really interesting. I noticed that almost aspect of the service exploits a combination of psychological phenomena known to generate belief. Consider the act of singing songs, which is a major part of most if not all church services. Simply singing songs that affirm the beliefs of a religion likely generates and ...

[TheLuckySaGe]

Christmas is coming soon so I might just be forced to end up in church. Perhaps I will make this bingo board and have everything checked off and then place it in the offering plate. ^^

[COEXISTential]

@grant50 You're kind to say.

[grant50]

@COEXISTential Spoken like a gentleman.

[COEXISTential]

@grant50 Fair call, the 'of' shouldn't have been there - fortunately I was trying to correct the pronunciation, not the spelling :D

[grant50]

@COEXISTential As long as we're striving for correctness, biases IS the plural.

[exmo74]

I have a testimony of this video. I know that its true.

[lunchboxboy]

I like that - my beliefs aren't part of my self :)

[GiveCourage]

"Cognitive bias is a well documented phenomenon that is more than capable of generating beliefs in the human mind which have no external validity. Such brazen exploitation of human bias cannot testify of any sort of truth because it is, by it's very nature, deceptive and dishonest. Any organization which genuinely poses truth of any kind would never resort to such manipulation because the truth would objectively speak for itself." Brilliant!