This Article Won't Change Your Mind

steve2

What did my head in as a JW is that often the same "facts" (i.e., Scriptures, current events, etc) were interpreted vastly differently by rival religious organizations - yet believers were not disturbed by this.

humbled

groups are usually better at coming up with the correct answers to reasoning tasks than individuals are.
Of course, the wisdom of groups is probably diminished if everyone in a group already agrees with each other.
“One real advantage of group reasoning is that you get critical feedback,” McIntyre says. “If you’re in a silo, you don’t get critical feedback, you just get applause.”

This can happen in religion or in any community—If there is a group leader who dominates. As was said“If you’re in a silo, you don’t get critical feedback, you just get applause.”

Great article.

sparrowdown

I remember watching a documentary on the latest neuroscience a few years ago that whennit comes to making decisions facts are important but it's our emotions that will sway us. Particularly when we have facts that cancel each other out, but even if the face of a mountain of evidence we will often go with the response what we are emotionally attached to, it was really interesting.

That's why I think a social trauma will often be the catalyst for researching facts or vice versa but they work in tandem.

OneGenTwoGroups

I was pissed about "the generation" and stumbled upon a Matt Dillahunty video regarding slavery in the Bible, that's what woke me up.

What wakes people up? On the average it may be social reasons, but that is the average, there's always people on the other side of the median.

Thank you for posting about this article Cofty!

Finkelstein

Science and facts gathered upon evidence can never offer redemption from sins and eternal life , that's why some people have no interest in science, they rather embrace the emotive ideologies of religion which have more appealing values.

freddo

When the "social reasons" at a personal level for staying a jw fail (child abuse/family DF'd) or accumulate (false promises/haughtiness/cliques/lack of love/looked down upon/mistreated) then facts can also accumulate, creep in and help liberate.

zeb

Was it Goebbels the Nazi propaganda chief who said,

"If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself."

and when the lie is found out you blame others loudly, have a miracle (new light) or suicide.

Brokeback Watchtower

I would like to see Artificial Intelligence solve this deprogramming problem in trying to reach our loved ones.

I wonder what a purely unemotional intelligence would come up with in getting people to bypass ingrained cult indoctrination and think in a different more healthy way?

Anders Andersen

Interesting article!

Theres a side of the story I'd like to add though. The same Kahan mentioned multiple times in the article did research into how both intelligence and 'scientific curiosity' have an effect on how people perceive facts.

The results?

Higher intelligence results in people being smarter at finding and understanding evidence that supports their worldview, while having enough arguments to refute evidence that shows them wrong. Intelligent people are better at believing something that is actually wrong.

So what helps people accept the real facts, even if it may not fit in their world view? Curiosity. Curiosity into finding more information about a subject. Not just to fortify their own position, but to actually learn.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/2/1/14392290/partisan-bias-dan-kahan-curiosity

That's why even intelligent people join and stay in cults. They're intelligent, but not curious enough.

And that's why Jw are strongly told to never even have a tiny look at apostate information, as curiosity can lead to their 'spiritual demise'.

smiddy3

marked for later

This Article Won't Change Your Mind - Great Read