Posted 4/07/2004 04:46:00 PM by Douglas

Why do smart people believe dumb things? This guy's got some theories:

Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for nonsmart reasons.

Uh, I don't think that's it. Most people aren't so much skilled at defending their beliefs as they are at describing why they believe them.

Rarely do any of us sit down before a table of facts, weigh them pro and con, and choose the most logical and rational explanation, regardless of what we previously believed. Most of us, most of the time, come to our beliefs for a variety of reasons having little to do with empirical evidence and logical reasoning. Rather, such variables as genetic predisposition, parental predilection, sibling influence, peer pressure, educational experience and life impressions all shape the personality preferences that, in conjunction with numerous social and cultural influences, lead us to our beliefs. We then sort through the body of data and select those that most confirm what we already believe, and ignore or rationalize away those that do not.

OK, I can buy that, but here's the clincher:

Education by itself is no paranormal prophylactic.

Actually, education isn't any kind of prophylactic.