And lo On Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:15:25 -0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did  
spake thusly:

> Phil Cook v2 wrote:
>
>> Trouble is occasionaly one of these fruitcakes turns out to be correct  
>> and due to the highly specialised technical nature of things the  
>> general public have little way of telling who is and isn't correct (and  
>> of course there's that latin phrase you know so well).
>
> The more a read about psychology, the more I realise that PEOPLE ARE  
> STUPID!
>
> The number of experiments I've read about where the test subjects do  
> things which are obviously irrational is quite astonishing.

Selection bias - the only people you can test are those who volunteer to  
be tested so all results gained may not apply to the majority who  
wouldn't. It's the same with questionaires and television ratings the only  
people measured are those who agree to be measured unless you work for TfL  
of course  
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3971799.ece

> (For example, you show people photos from a pair of digital cameras.  
> Most people prefer camera X, and a few prefer camera Y. Now you tell  
> them that camera X is 5 megapixels, but camera Y is 10 megapixels.  
> Suddenly everybody prefers the photos from camera Y. WTF??)

Because the marketing crowd have told them more pixels are better and why  
would they lie? On the same theme a group were asked to judge something  
measurable, but the groups had been planted with people told to lie. The  
actual test subjects tended to go along with the lies when they appeared  
in the majority.

> I worry about the human race... Seriously, how did a species so stupid  
> survive for so long?

Dumb luck? To be honest I think it's something that's only really showing  
up now. Our brains, bodies, and reactions have evolved in certain ways  
that made sense 10,000 plus years ago when we lived in small tribes and  
those ingrained skills are getting confused.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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