How We Know What Isn’t So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life

Description

Contents (v)......Page 5 Acknowledgments (vii)......Page 7 1. Introduction (1)......Page 8 Part One. Cognitive Determinants Questionable Beliefs (7)......Page 14 2. Something Out of Nothing: The Misperception and Misinterpretation of Random Data (9)......Page 15 3. Too Much from Too Little: The Misinterpretation of Incomple and Unrepresentative Data (29)......Page 35 4. Seeing What We Expect to See: The Biased Evaluation of Ambiguous and Inconsistent Data (49)......Page 55 Part Two. Motivational and Social Determinants of Questionable Beliefs (73)......Page 79 5. Seeing What We Want to See: Motivational Determinants of Belief (75)......Page 80 6. Believing What We Are Told: The Biasing Effects of Secondhand Information (88)......Page 93 7. The Imagined Agreement of Others: Exaggerated Impressions of Social Support (112)......Page 117 Part Three. Examples of Questionable and Erroneous Beliefs (123)......Page 128 8. Belief in Ineffective "Alternative" Health Practices (125)......Page 129 9. Belief in the Effectiveness of Questionable Interpersonal Strategies (146)......Page 150 10. Belief in ESP (156)......Page 160 Part Four. Where Do We Go from Here? (183)......Page 187 11. Challenging Dubious Beliefs: The Role of Social Science (185)......Page 188 Notes (195)......Page 198 Index (214)......Page 217