Reddit reviews Why People Believe Weird Things
We found 3 Reddit comments about Why People Believe Weird Things. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
Reddit reviews Why People Believe Weird ThingsWe found 3 Reddit comments about Why People Believe Weird Things. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
For my philosophy major as an undergrad, I took a course called Explaining the Paranormal. I thought we were going to learn why ghosts haunt people or where Bigfoot really is. I was wrong. We learned about why people believe ridiculous things and how to use critical thinking to avoid silly beliefs. As hard as it was, that class made me realize that almost all of the paranormal things I was incredibly interested in all throughout my teens were BS.
Anyway, to answer your question: One of the books we used for the class was called Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer. I don't remember much about it, just that it was easy to understand and it really got me to start thinking critically about a lot of things. Amazon says it came out in 2007 but I took that class years before that so it must've been a different printing. But anyway, yeah, that's my pick. Why People Believe Weird Things.
Am reading Henrietta Lacks ATM and really liking it.
I also recommend ...
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
The Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan
God Is Not Great - Christopher Hitchens
Risk - Dan Gardner
Bad Science - Ben Goldacre
Why People Believe Weird Things - Michael Shermer
How We Know What isn't So - Thomas Gilovich
EDIT : MOAR
Quirkology - Prof. Richard Wiseman
Tricks Of The Mind - Derren Brown
59 Seconds: Think a little, change a lot - Prof. Richard Wiseman
How to Lie With Statistics - Donald Huff
It feels strange but the probability of you having the same dream as someone you know is high. It's because there are hundreds of thousands of chances it could happen. So, for it to happen once out of hundreds of thousands of oppertunities isn't strange. That math says it's going to happen.
Especially as it's a common dream. It's so popular that google auto populates it when you type in, dream of p.
It's something that statistically is going to happen to a lot of people.
I'd recommend reading this book. I read it years ago and it is a good beginners guide to understanding why you think there is something mystical going on.
You are making one of the error explained in the book where you are attributing something that is common as being unusual.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/People-Believe-Weird-Things-Pseudoscience/dp/0285638033