Posted on 07/21/2023 8:35:13 AM PDT by bitt
"As a rule, I have found that the greater brain a man has, and the better educated, the easier it has been to mystify him."
So said master illusionist Harry Houdini. He said it during his spat with Sherlock Holmes’ creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle over the latter’s belief in seances and fairies. Despite being a literary genius, Conan Doyle nevertheless had some foolish ideas.
He’s not alone. Researchers have even coined ‘Nobel Disease,’ referring to the tendency for some Nobel Prize winners to embrace unconventional beliefs. Charles Richet, for instance, won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine but also believed in dowsing and ghosts.
Taken to the extreme, almost half of all German doctors in the 1930s joined the Nazi Party early, which was a higher rate than any other profession. Their education and intelligence did not shield them from madness – quite the opposite.
We are all deluged with attempts to manipulate us, from Big Tech and politicians to salespeople and colleagues. It is comforting to think that this is only a concern for the less intellectually gifted: we conjure up stereotypes of backwards ‘conspiracy theorists’ and ‘science deniers’ who need protecting from misinformation.
Yet the reality is that intellectuals are just as vulnerable to bias, if not more so. The scientific term is dysrationalia. Psychology professor Keith Stanovich researched it thoroughly and once concluded that ‘none of these [biases] displayed a negative correlation with [intelligence]… If anything, the correlations went in the other direction.’
Why might that be?
The first explanation is motivated reasoning, where logic is used to satisfy an underlying emotional motivation. Conan Doyle, for example, may have convinced himself of the truth of fairies and seances because he was struggling with the recent death of his son. With a deep psychological need to fill, Conan Doyle’s remarkable intellect simply provided the justification.
People reach the conclusions they want to reach, and then post-rationalise it – but smarter people are better at coming up with these justifications. To paraphrase George Orwell, some things are so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.
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Hubris.
Confirmation bias.
It is easier to fool a person than to convince him that he has been fooled.” - Mark Twain....................
Because common sense ain’t so common....and never has been.
Narcissists.
Because they’re not as smart as you think they are
“There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.”
― George Orwell
Something for nothing. Oldest scam since the dawn of mankind. It has never worked, and never will, but it still sells every time it’s tried.
They may be intelligent but they have no wisdom at all.
lack of critical thinking ..
Circle of competence.
Diane Chambers Syndrome. Or Frazier Crane syndrome for that matter. (For the younger folks, look up the TV show ‘Cheers’)
Even Musk, who is a genius in some ways, voted for Biden. A person can be very smart in some way and still be an idiot in others.
“Why Are Intelligent People So Easily Tricked?”
They were made that way so universities would always have an ample supply of potential professors.
Arrogance. ‘Smart’ people think they are immune to brainwashing and above it all.
IQ and education are just tools, like physical strength or health or money or position.
We are stupid, sinful and weak. We use tools for our destruction as well as for good. It’s the human condition.
False premise right there. The public image of the NAZI party in the 1930s was to lift Germany out of a prolonged depression and runaway inflation, and to restore Germany as a dignified country again instead of a whipping boy who continued to be punished over WWI. A message of "Make Germany Great Again" if you will.
You can't use the advantage of knowing how NAZI Germany ended up to condemn those who joined at the beginning.
Even Henry Ford worked briefly with NAZI Germany, and we were allowing NAZI Germany Zeppelins to conduct passenger service between Germany and the United States.
Let us also condemn the person who gave the NAZIs permission to land at the Naval base in Lakehurst, NJ in 1937 while we're at it.
Satan is MUCH more intelligent than man (but God is MUCH more intelligent than Satan).
Often intelligent people rely on their own intelligence or "wisdom". That's where Satan's got 'em and is what we have going on here.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean to your own understanding." Proverbs 3:5.
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