How Believing Can Be Seeing: Context Dictates What We Believe We See
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Contrary to what one might expect, it is a vague rather than a bright and clearly visible context that most strongly permits our beliefs to override the evidence and fill in the blanks. In fact, a bright and clearly visible context actually overrides the evidence in the opposite direction - suppressing our 'seeing' of the vague target even when it is present.
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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...103210.htm
Paper:
http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info...bi.0040014
Analogously, we have the old saying that a whisper can capture attention more than a shout.
Similarly, it is the vague yet subjectively compelling details in these stories of secrecy and strangeness that seem to capture people's attention. Some people seem to enjoy the extra effort involved in turning innuendo and inherently tenuous claims into something more substantial for digestion (thereby permitting their beliefs to override the evidence and fill in the blanks).
There may be an evolutionary basis for this behavior, in that there tends to be a perception of increased value in those resources that are perceived to be scarce.
(...)
Contrary to what one might expect, it is a vague rather than a bright and clearly visible context that most strongly permits our beliefs to override the evidence and fill in the blanks. In fact, a bright and clearly visible context actually overrides the evidence in the opposite direction - suppressing our 'seeing' of the vague target even when it is present.
(...)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...103210.htm
Paper:
http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info...bi.0040014
Analogously, we have the old saying that a whisper can capture attention more than a shout.
Similarly, it is the vague yet subjectively compelling details in these stories of secrecy and strangeness that seem to capture people's attention. Some people seem to enjoy the extra effort involved in turning innuendo and inherently tenuous claims into something more substantial for digestion (thereby permitting their beliefs to override the evidence and fill in the blanks).
There may be an evolutionary basis for this behavior, in that there tends to be a perception of increased value in those resources that are perceived to be scarce.