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juju · 01-21-2004, 03:56 PM

I ran across this a while back, and even put two articles about it on my website (here and here). It's just another one of those things that <i>everyone</i> believes, even though a teeny tiny amount of research would prove it completly wrong. Just odd. The ESP comment is dead-on. It's the same reason people are religious: they <b>want</b> to believe they are capable of more, so they give more credit to explanations that are in line with what they want to believe.

It reminds me of how everyone on the planet started insisting that I put mashed up rice cereal into my 4 week old daughter's formula to help her sleep better. Any cursory amount of research would show it to be faulty and potentially bad for them, and yet I cannot seem to meet a person in this region that doesn't believe it.

Why do people believe weird things?

01-21-2004, 03:56 PM	#4
juju no one of consequence Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Arkansas Posts: 2,839	I ran across this a while back, and even put two articles about it on my website (here and here). It's just another one of those things that <i>everyone</i> believes, even though a teeny tiny amount of research would prove it completly wrong. Just odd. The ESP comment is dead-on. It's the same reason people are religious: they <b>want</b> to believe they are capable of more, so they give more credit to explanations that are in line with what they want to believe. It reminds me of how everyone on the planet started insisting that I put mashed up rice cereal into my 4 week old daughter's formula to help her sleep better. Any cursory amount of research would show it to be faulty and potentially bad for them, and yet I cannot seem to meet a person in this region that doesn't believe it. Why do people believe weird things?