THOMAS KIDA ~ DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU THINK ~ 2006

~ WPSTS ~ We Prefer Stories To Statistics

~ WSTC ~ We Seek To Confirm

~ WRATROCACIL ~ We Rarely Appreciate The Role Of Chance And Coincidence In Life

~ WCMOW ~ We Can Misperceive Our World

~ WO ~ We Oversimplify

~ WHFM ~ We Have Faulty Memories

~ EIWKTS-WLPSAUM ~ Even If We Know The Statistics – We Let Personal Stories Affect Us More

~ WWTBTTHFAR ~ We Want To Believe That Things Happen For A Reason

~ WHAIDTFCAER ~ We Have An Ingrained Desire To Find Cause And Effect Relationships

~ OSCBD ~ Our Senses Can Be Deceived

~ CB-E-E-AE-SQCIOMOPE ~ Current Beliefs – Expectations – Environment – And Even – Suggestive Questioning Can Influence Our Memory Of Past Events

~ IMATTOMAAROTP ~ It’s More Accurate To Think Of Memory As A Reconstruction Of The Past

~ TFSIMBDITITPIOT ~ The First Step In Making Better Decisions Is To Identify The Pitfalls In Our Thinking

~ ECREE ~ Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence

~ TAF-WCE-SEGWTNO ~ Time After Time – When Critically Examined – Supernatural Explanations Give Way To Natural Ones

~ CWBFSE?-ACAODSTWC ~ Can We Be Fooled So Easily? – A Considerable Amount Of Data Says That We Can

~ STTAT ~ Seeing Things That Aren’t There

~ WOHBNBOTEFT-B-BBTMUFG ~ We Often Hold Beliefs Not Because Of The Evidence For Those Beliefs – But – Because They Make Us Feel Good

~ CINC ~ Correlation Is Not Causation

~ ROAIIOOTMCOEB ~ Relying On Anecdotal Information Is One Of The Main Causes Of Erroneous Beliefs

~ MINOOM-WAAAB-C-P-L-R-C-L-E ~ Money Is Not Our Only Motivator – We Are Also Affected By – Conformity – Power – Love – Revenge – Charity – Laziness – Etc

~ WHANTTC-NITCWOEBIQAAFV-ITCOBIOIOCSAD-AT-TRWGTRCECBQL ~ We Have A Natural Tendency To Confirm – New Information That’s Consistent With Our Existing Beliefs Is Quickly Accepted At Face Value – Information That Contradicts Our Beliefs Is Often Ignored Or Critically Scrutinized And Discounted – At Times – The Reasons We Give To Rationalize Conflicting Evidence Can Be Quite Laughable

~ MOUBTOSADTWWD-A-OFADTEE ~ Many Of Us Believe That Our Successes Are Due To What We Did – And – Our Failures Are Due To External Events

~ WWMMADIWROSPIOIP ~ We Would Make More Accurate Decision If We Relied On Statistical Predictions Instead Of Intuitive Predictions

~ WHAUTTOAF ~ We Have An Underlying Tendency To Obey Authority Figures

~ WAQTAOORIWTWCOTWOAAF ~ We Are Quick To Absolve Ourselves Of Responsibility If We Think We’re Carrying Out The Wishes Of An Authority Figure

THOMAS KIDA ~ CHARACTERISTICS OF PSEUDOSCIENTIFIC THINKING ~ DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU THINK ~ 2006

~ PNOWTB ~ Preconceived Notion Of What To Believe

~ SFETSAPB ~ Search For Evidence To Support A Preconceived Belief

~ IETWFACOB ~ Ignore Evidence That Would Falsify A Claim Or Belief

~ DAEFAP ~ Disregard Alternative Explanations For A Phenomenon

~ HEB ~ Hold Extraordinary Beliefs

~ AFETSAEC ~ Accept Flimsy Evidence To Support An Extraordinary Claim

~ RHOAE ~ Rely Heavily On Anecdotal Evidence

~ LOTCETTAC ~ Lack Of Tightly Controlled Experiments To Test A Claim

~ EVLS ~ Employ Very Little Skepticism