|
OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



Registered: 04/01/07
Posts: 45,414
Loc: Under the C
|
Even skeptics believe that which they are skeptical of?
#14440024 - 05/12/11 12:48 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
I tried to find the study and cannot. 
A large group of psychology students were asked if they believed in telekinesis or the ability to predict the future. Those that said 'no' were further tested on predicting/affecting coin flips while being repeatedly interrupted or distracted.
The worst 'performers' were asked if they thought they could do better if they could focus more. A surprisingly large number replied that they thought they could. (Again, I have no percentages.)
Providing my study is not fictitious, there can only be two main possibilities:
1. The students were responding with some Pavlovian need to please the professor.
or
2. Their logical mind tells them focusing has no effect on a random outcome, but they still hold on to some emotional need to believe in magic.
--------------------
Edited by OrgoneConclusion (05/12/11 01:14 PM)
|
1983
Stranger

Registered: 04/14/11
Posts: 130
|
Re: Even skeptics believe that which they are skeptical of? [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
#14440133 - 05/12/11 01:12 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
That would make you a fundie.
|
pouihi
Mary Jane Doe



Registered: 01/04/11
Posts: 2,384
Last seen: 1 year, 9 months
|
Re: Even skeptics believe that which they are skeptical of? [Re: 1983]
#14441640 - 05/12/11 07:09 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
I lean more towards your second choice, although I think it might be unconsciously. Rationalizing about the idea of predicting things or controlling things with they're mind they promptly say no. Yet they know that a distraction can affect one's performance (in a situation where we can control) and probably end up not even noticing that they were being tested for the answer they had previously given and that distracted or not their performance would be as random as the event itself
--------------------
"If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."
|
helix
Idealist Thinker Musician Lover


Registered: 09/13/10
Posts: 409
|
Re: Even skeptics believe that which they are skeptical of? [Re: pouihi]
#14446028 - 05/13/11 03:15 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
I think it's a combination of the two possibilities you mentioned, and if anything, proof that emotion crafts the way that we use our reason.
|
Sophistic Radiance
Free sVs!


Registered: 07/11/06
Posts: 43,135
Loc: Center of the Universe
|
Re: Even skeptics believe that which they are skeptical of? [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
#14446062 - 05/13/11 03:22 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
#3: They were passive-aggressively encouraging the study-takers to quit bugging them.
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
|
zoomfan
doubt 'er


Registered: 07/16/09
Posts: 505
Loc: eastern Canada
Last seen: 2 years, 10 months
|
Re: Even skeptics believe that which they are skeptical of? [Re: Sophistic Radiance]
#14448761 - 05/13/11 11:38 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
i think it probably has something to do with the fact that most things can be done better by foucing more so people answered yes without thinking about it.
-------------------- Thinking is dreaming wake up and enjoy the dream.
|
OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



Registered: 04/01/07
Posts: 45,414
Loc: Under the C
|
Re: Even skeptics believe that which they are skeptical of? [Re: zoomfan]
#14448798 - 05/13/11 11:44 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
Like foucing on speeling?
--------------------
|
Abnormal
Gamma goblin



Registered: 02/02/07
Posts: 110
Loc: Bat country
|
Re: Even skeptics believe that which they are skeptical of? [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
#14449737 - 05/14/11 06:04 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
OrgoneConclusion said: Like foucing on speeling?
Anyway, if they scored less than what would be considered average with just guessing (which i guess they did, them being the "worst performers"), chances are they would do better if they tried again, based on probability. Then of course there's ego and winner instinct. Focusing more was just an excuse to do it again and do better, and odds were in their favour.
|
OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



Registered: 04/01/07
Posts: 45,414
Loc: Under the C
|
Re: Even skeptics believe that which they are skeptical of? [Re: Abnormal]
#14449786 - 05/14/11 06:31 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|

"Oh, Abbie Somebody - Abbie Normal."
--------------------
|
Abnormal
Gamma goblin



Registered: 02/02/07
Posts: 110
Loc: Bat country
|
Re: Even skeptics believe that which they are skeptical of? [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
#14449932 - 05/14/11 07:41 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
OrgoneConclusion said:

"Oh, Abbie Somebody - Abbie Normal."
I'm the 7,5 foot long, fifty four inch wide gorilla alright.
|
Mufungo
Coming at ya


Registered: 04/03/07
Posts: 2,743
Loc: Knowhere
|
Re: Even skeptics believe that which they are skeptical of? [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
#14450684 - 05/14/11 11:24 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
OrgoneConclusion said: I tried to find the study and cannot. 
A large group of psychology students were asked if they believed in telekinesis or the ability to predict the future. Those that said 'no' were further tested on predicting/affecting coin flips while being repeatedly interrupted or distracted.
The worst 'performers' were asked if they thought they could do better if they could focus more. A surprisingly large number replied that they thought they could. (Again, I have no percentages.)
Providing my study is not fictitious, there can only be two main possibilities:
1. The students were responding with some Pavlovian need to please the professor.
or
2. Their logical mind tells them focusing has no effect on a random outcome, but they still hold on to some emotional need to believe in magic.
When you say "ability to predict the future", did you mean some supernatural ability to see into the future or ability to predict the future based on past events? Almost everyone can predict the future based on past events.
As for flaws in the described experimental method and then the flow on to the interpretation of the results. Because the wording of the two questions in the experiment was quite different and therefore could be said to be accessing unrelated semantic nodes of information, it is unclear what the participants actually thought they were doing when they were asked if they would perform better if they "focus more". Did they think by focusing more they were actually manipulating the physical properties of the coin, or did they think by focusing more they were actually seeing into the future? Or maybe did they think they were doing something else by focusing more? Perhaps due to misunderstandings of how probability works they succumb to the gambler's fallacy and thought that by focusing more they could decipher a pattern based on past tosses that would give them the answer of what the coin will do next. So ya see by using the vague idea of "focus" and then somehow interpreting that participants thought they were exercising the ability of telekinesis or an ability to magically see into the future, the experiment and it's conclusions are flawed.
--------------------
|
zoomfan
doubt 'er


Registered: 07/16/09
Posts: 505
Loc: eastern Canada
Last seen: 2 years, 10 months
|
Re: Even skeptics believe that which they are skeptical of? [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
#14450948 - 05/14/11 12:07 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
OrgoneConclusion said: Like foucing on speeling?
yeah like that grammar queen, you didnt address my point though, i think its more logical to conclude that they answered without thinking it through rather than actually believing they could predict the future... you didnt even post the study so we could review the context etc?!
-------------------- Thinking is dreaming wake up and enjoy the dream.
|
|