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Here is a list of the 26 principles I will be covering this semester. These are just an introductory sampling of the ways that people are fooled into believing things that are not (or not
likely to be) true. As the semester wears on, I will be adding content to this page (filling in the table) so that by the time you are presenting, you should have a nice summary of some things
to look out for. Once the table is completed, I will prepare a nice PDF of this table for you to download that can be nicely printed out: DOWNLOAD.
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| Tricks Used To Deliberately Fool People |
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| Principle | Example | Typically used in or by... |
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| 1 | One Ahead | | Psychics |
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| 2 | Multiple out | | Psychics; ESP |
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| 3 | Confederates (Shills) | | Psychics; CAM; ESP |
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| 4 | Misdirection | | Cryptids; ESP; Pseudoscience |
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| 5 | Lying | | Psychics; Ghosts; Cryptids; CAM; ESP; UFOs; Pseudoscience |
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| 6 | Control | | ESP; Pseudoscience |
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| Common (But Flawed) Methods of Belief Formation |
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| Principle | Example | Relied upon too
heavily in/by... |
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| 1 | Intuition | | Conspiracies; Psychics; CAM; Ghosts; Cryptids; ESP; Pseudoscience |
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| 2 | Logic | | Conspiracies; Cryptids; UFOs; Ghost Hunters; Pseudoscience |
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| 3 | Emotion | | Conspiracies; Psychics; ESP; CAM; Ghosts; Cryptids; UFOs |
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| 4 | Sense Experience | | Conspiracies; Psychics; CAM; Ghosts; Cryptids; ESP; UFOs; Pseudoscience |
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| 5 | Tenacity | | Psychics; CAM; Ghosts; Cryptids |
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| 6 | Authority | | Conspiracies; CAM; UFOs; Cryptids; Pseudoscience |
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| Some Bad Habits That Thwart Critical Thinking |
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| Principle | Example | Relied upon too
heavily in/by... |
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| 1 | Availability Heuristic | | Conspiracies; CAM; Ghosts; Psychics; Pseudoscience |
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| 2 | Confirmation Bias ("fishing trips") | | Conspiracies; Psychics; CAM; Ghosts; Cryptids; ESP; UFOs |
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| 3 | Causality From Coincidence | | Conspiracies; Psychics; CAM; Ghosts; ESP; Pseudoscience |
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| 4 | Intellectual Laziness | | Conspiracies; CAM; Pseudoscience |
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| 5 | Need For Certainty (intolerance of ambiguity) | | Conspiracies; Psychics; Superstitions; CAM; Ghosts; UFOs; Pseudoscience |
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| 6 | Focus On Hits/Ignoring Misses (cherry picking) | | Conspiracies; Psychics; ESP; CAM; Ghosts; Pseudoscience |
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| 7 | Pareidolia And Apophenia | | Conspiracies; Psychics; ESP; Ghosts; UFOs; Pseudoscience |
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| 8 | Memory Errors | | Conspiracies; Psychics; Ghosts; UFOs |
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| Poor Excuses Pretending To Be Valid Arguments |
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| Poor Excuse | Example | Beware their use
in/by... |
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| 1 | Irreducible Minimum | | Conspiracies; Psychics; CAM; Ghosts; Cryptids; UFOs |
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| 2 | "They laughed at Einstein!" | | Conspiracies; Cryptids; Pseudoscience |
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| 3 | Ignorance (Dunning-Kruger) | | Conspiracies; CAM; Ghosts; Pseudoscience |
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| 4 | Testimonials | | Conspiracies; Psychics; CAM; Ghosts; Cryptids; ESP; UFOs; Pseudoscience |
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| 5 | Irrefutable Hypothesis (falsifiability) | | Conspiracies; Psychics; CAM; Ghosts; Cryptids; UFOs; Pseudoscience |
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| 6 | Violations of Occam's Razor | | Conspiracies; Psychics; CAM; Ghosts; Cryptids; UFOs; Pseudoscience |
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