POLL: New Forum Section?

Teheuti said:

Cognitive Dissonance has gotten a lot of play as the human brain function that turns off or sidetracks our thinking when we hear a perspective that is antithetical to our beliefs. It takes the form of automatic rejection or refutation of that material and favors information that confirms one's biases.

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And the thing is that this principle applies to everyone. Even the historians at HR are not immune to this mental liability. It's uncanny how scienctific research is so lavishly loaded with examples of how facts and evidence seem to support ones own theory, and how so-called experts, given the same data, can differ so drastically in their opinions. The habitual nature of the human mind is grounded in its predisposition for being right.

foolish said:

It's uncanny how scienctific research is so lavishly loaded with examples of how facts and evidence seem to support ones own theory, and how so-called experts, given the same data, can differ so drastically in their opinions.

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Yet they managed to break the sound barrier, and map the human genome. Funny thing that.

Yeah, cognitive dissonance is back. Leon Festinger's original 1957 research presenting this theory of attitude change actually involved faulty mystical predictions: When Prophecy Fails is the name of the book. He studied a flying saucer cult that predicted the arrival of the aliens and what happened when the aliens didn't come.

The theory comes and goes in the popular press. It's not the only way to explain attitudes but it's intuitively appealing, easy to apply and mostly right.

There's other explanations of attitude change and persistence, including one focused on social identity (Bem), and more recently a theory based on use of core metaphors (Lakoff).

eta: A key to cutting through bias to truth is how the scientific/academic/scholarly/cultural community is structured--how people relate to each other, the nature of the group and how one gets into it, how legitimacy and rewards are conferred, etc. Cognitive dissonance theory doesn't consider these factors so it's quite incomplete.

Debra said:

There's other explanations of attitude change and persistence, including one focused on social identity (Bem), and more recently a theory based on use of core metaphors (Lakoff).

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I don't know the Bem theory, but I love the metaphor work of George Lakoff.

It's not so much that one is right and another wrong. Cognitive Dissonance and Metaphors We Live By can both be functioning simultaneously. I experience cognitive dissonance in myself as a kind of brain shut off. I can actually feel it happening. With Lakoff I was struck by the fact that something so simple as the prepositional phrase "in front of" is conceptually different in different cultures. Americans see it as a thing being between us and the thing it is in front of. Other cultures see it as being on the far side of the thing it is in front of. When you get into analysis of how different political parties understand terms it gets really crazy.

foolish - of course historians experience cognitive dissonance. Professional skeptics have it big time. We are all human beings. I love it when I am able to catch myself in one of these assumptions and have a chance to break free of it - even if only for a moment. There's a real sense of freedom when I can do that - although, like everyone else, I fall back into my mental habits almost immediately.

Mary - you're a bright light of reason in here. It takes honesty and a healthy sense of Self to challenge ones own assumptions - which most emphatically defend as the truth.

Cognitive dissonance is often at the root of why we sometimes see a knee-jerk reaction to defend a particular theory, or dismiss another.

I have been away from Tarot Forums for a year, due to Life imitating Art.(More exact- Graffiti )

I was very impressed with this poll and poster's views.

It is very hard to post about ideas that have started with a speculation and the inability to back up the idea with hard facts right at the start. Other forums have areas that clearly define exploratory posts. Like ..... Unicorn Terrace ....Know'es and Suppos'es- these are clever..
In the Historical section it would seem that because of the rigor required, many do not go there for fear they will be stomped on. Regardless of what TeHeuti thinks..stomping upon happens. I have been a stomper, even with a smile and soft words. Others have had studs on their boots unfortunately (over the years).

Yes I would like a sub -forum for conjecture or at least the ability to put some sort of astrix at the end of the Post Title to indicate speculation.
The Muser's Pool ????

~Rosanne

Hi Rosanne, it's nice to see you! I like The Muser's Pool suggestion.

Thank you for the nod Astrea!
A note of laughter about the subject..... Muse comes from the medieval Latin mus a snout/nose. For us sniffing about with an idea.

~Rosanne

Rosanne said:

Muse comes from the medieval Latin mus a snout/nose. For us sniffing about with an idea.

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Love it!

Rosanne said:

Thank you for the nod Astrea!
A note of laughter about the subject..... Muse comes from the medieval Latin mus a snout/nose. For us sniffing about with an idea.

~Rosanne

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!!

Mus is also the Latin for MOUSE, I believe...