scott <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
> I think these people believe there is something "beyond" basic chemistry, ie 
> even when no active substance can be detected, it has somehow made its mark 
> on the carrier substance (water, sugar etc).  And as is completely normal 
> with human nature, they subconsciously interpret the results of a few very 
> unscientific tests (eg my friends mum was cured by it) and conclude it 
> works.

  I have hard time understanding the psychological phenomenon that many
people are eager to believe in some things based solely on what other
people *claim*, without any actual convincing evidence, or with just some
flimsy circumstancial evidence of eyewitness testimony, and *keep believing*
in it even after an enormously more comprehensive and accurate testing shows
that the thing is bogus.

  Someone might believe that something works because someone claims that it
worked on 10 people. Even if a scientifically accurate study is then performed
repeatedly on 1000 people, and this test shows that it doesn't actually work,
these people will *still* believe it works.

  I really can't understand why. It's like accurate scientifical testing which
is more extensive and more thorough is less convincing than a much smaller
sample of inaccurate circumstancial evidence.

  Why do so many people think like this? What is the psychological phenomenon
behind this kind of thinking?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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