Interesting Links for 17-05-2015

[andrewducker]

I concise guide to the current UK Cabinet. Well worth a read. (tags: uk politics conservatives ) JavaScript at 20 (tags: javascript ) Exercise alone won’t make you lose weight. (tags: exercise weight ) Beware Eurosceptic versions of history and science (tags: history science Europe ) How Many Americans Are Married To Their Cousins? (And how

Comments

[steer]

And one final thought along those lines that may convince you that people are being more "rational" than you think: the "Aha, what about what they didn't know?" effect.

I know at least two highly intelligent people with what I consider to be highly irrational beliefs: one a WMD true believer and one a 9/11 conspiracy believer. The former believes that certain things were found in the desert and these have been hushed up, the latter (a prof of pure mathematics) believes that the physics of the situation is such that there was insufficient energy to trigger the tower collapse.

Now for those people any reports they read that doesn't address their core objections will actually strengthen their belief. "Yet again, someone has been taken in by the media consensus but I know better because of fact X that does not appear in this article."

This seems unreasonable on the face of it. But all the time I read internet cranks saying "Einstein was wrong" and it is clear they haven't the foggiest about special or general relativity. The articles that show a lack of understanding of the reality of the situation don't affect my belief and might cause me to reassert my belief more strongly.