Testing Poe’s Law: Can Trump supporters detect BS?

Back in 2005, a chap called Nathan Poe made an observation within an on-line discussion group as follows … Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won’t mistake for the genuine article. This has in turn led to a generic … Read more

Why do so many people ignore facts?

We are awash with people who reject facts and embrace myths … Creationism Rejection of the scientific consensus that humans are the cause of climate change The assertion that 9/11 was an inside job The claim that vaccines cause autism etc… We are wholly familiar with much of this. This is because the realisation that … Read more

Why do Trump Cult members ignore facts? – #resist

What is rather astonishing is the observation that Trump can more or less do anything without in any way disrupting the support he enjoys amongst his devoted followers. Let’s play a small thought experiment. Let’s suppose that he was caught boasting on tape about committing sexual assault upon women … oh wait, that has happened, and … Read more

Top 5 Weirdest Cognitive Biases

I was writing yesterday about Buster’s Cheat sheet of Cognitive Biases that he composed from the list found on the Wikipedia page entitled “List of cognitive biases“. Browse that list and you will find some familiar friends such as “Confirmation Bias” or “Backfire effect“. However, you will also find some truly strange ones, and so I’ve picked … Read more