I'm talking about superstitions, fortune tellers, homeopathy, anti-evolution, anti-vaxx (not specific arguments against a specific vaccine, but in general), magic, fake healers, obviously fake medical info (bleach, etc.) guardian angels, gods, karma, ESP, ghosts, spirits, quantum bullshit, bad energy, miracles, lizard people, telepathy and all that crap.
It makes me incredibly pessimistic about humans. Of course, most people don't believe in all of the above, but I've noticed people either believe in none of the above, or in several the above - rarely just 1 thing.
Unrelated, but on page 3 it mentions:
> 2023 - Many young people feel the average person can know as much as a doctor
Not as BFS knowledge, but as DFS about something specific - sure. I've caught many doctors not knowing basic things about something specific. They know more than me in general, but about that specific things they're read 5 papers over the last 2 years and I've read 20 over the past month. Even accounting for their ability to better extract valuable data from papers, it's still easy to know more than a doctor about that SPECIFIC thing. The inquisitive and humble doctors review the papers and agree with me or they point out what I'm missing or where I'm wrong. The ignorant and arrogant doctors outright tell me that I'm a layman, that I shouldn't roleplay as a doctor and that I should follow their advice blindly.
Finally, can some explain:
> I will believe a recommendation that contradicts my beliefs from a source I trust
with the options being:
- After I hear it one time
- After I hear it two or more times
- I will never believe it is true
I wouldn't trust a recommendation based only on the number of times I've heard it. I may be more inclined to consider it the more I hear it, of course, which can lead to more trust, but it's never a direct relationship between number of times I've heard something and how likely I'd be to trust it. And the "I will never believe it is true" option is wild - "never" ever? Who seriously chose that option? Were people tired as it was one of the last questions? Come to think of it, I've heard people say "I will never change my mind on this" no matter how I clarify with "even if you get really strong evidence?". So perhaps it's true. But that whole question makes no sense to me.