The Myth of Consistent Skepticism

[sarahmichigan]

I know that even as skeptical as I am about a number of issues and beliefs (alternative medicine, the supernatural, and so on), that I am not immune to believing things without having good proof for them, or believing them for emotional reasons. I think this article does a good job of explaining how someone can be very skeptical and logical in one area of life while being a bit of a sucker in other areas-- think Arthur Conan Doyle, who created the eminently logical Sherlock Holmes, and yet who was also scammed by little girls who faked a fairy sighting.

There is the issue of "confirmation bias", to be sure. We tend to remember and emphasize evidence that bolsters what we already believe and disregard evidence that would disprove our belief.

Also relevant is the issue of "argument by emotion"- we often believe things because of some strong emotion we have about a subject rather than because the facts.

However, something I've thought about before but hadn't really put into words is that we don't have the time or expertise to be able to be skeptical about everything. It's sort of a time-saving shortcut to believe the conventional wisdom on a variety of things because nobody has the time to skeptically investigate every claim, every belief. And I don't have expertise on every area of life to know whether a claim is reasonable or not- I could be totally scammed about an economic theory, for instance, because it's not an area I've studied much.

Here's an example: I have little boxes of baking soda in my fridge and my freezer. I'd always been told that they keep your fridge and freezer smelling better. But where is the proof? What scientific study has been done? Or is this just propaganda by Arm and Hammer to keep sales up? It hadn't even occurred to me to be skeptical about this claim until I read an article that mentioned in passing the fact that the claim hadn't been tested.

Comments

[bernmarx.livejournal.com]

Along the lines of Arm and Hammer, I've seen it claimed that the myth that spinach specifically is good for the physique was created for Popeye when the national spinach lobby beat out other vegetables' lobbies for being the one that Popeye eats to become superstrong. "I fights to the finach 'cuz I eats my spinach" could just as easily have been (and nearly was!) some variant of "I battles it outs with my brussel sprouts."

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

I don't think anybody can make brussel sprouts sexy for most people. *I* like them, but I know few others who do.

I always thought the spinach is good for being strong claim was all about the iron...

[effy.livejournal.com]

I guess this is also along the lines of De Beer's creating the "3 months salary" diamond thing or Bic telling women to shave their legs before it was common practice.

We go along with it, even though we claim to be logical people, you know?

I've always wondered the same thing..."How can a person so smart be so dumb?"

As always, good post!

[aedifica]

The baking soda claim is an easy one to let slip because of how cheap it is. Even if I bought a new box of baking soda every month it wouldn't have a noticeable impact on my budget!

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

True, true. It goes with the whole idea of acceptance of conventional wisdom as a time-savings device. If the purchase is not going to impact my budget in any significant way, why spend the time (because time is money) to do a thorough investigation?

[firecat]

The cheaper and less time-wasting way to handle it is to stop using baking soda until you start to notice a stinkier fridge. :)

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

Also true!

[guttaperk.livejournal.com]

Skepticism is an important habit, but we're all still human.

[shadbolt75.livejournal.com]

The claim that baking soda absorbs odor is pretty much impossible to prove. However, it does have many other uses that can be proved. I use it for all kinds of cleaning around the house and it is effective. I mix it with borax as a homemade laundry detergent and it works at least as good, if not better, than commercial detergents.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

It's a nice non-toxic general purpose cleaner. I use it to clean sinks and other things.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_earthshine_/]

Someday i hope to write a lot about this, but i think it's important that we realize that belief without proof is no different than belief with proof in many many contexts within our lives.

As you point out, who wants to fact-check every aspect of our lives? Frankly, even if we were so motivated, the vast majority of things we do and choices we make aren't things that can be "proven" or "scientifically studied" in any meaningful way anyway.

I think that at least as important as knowing scientific process is knowing where it applies and what it's for. While i'd be fast to agree that things like emotional arguments, religion and superstition are all-too-often widely abused in this world, i think i wouldn't be far behind in admitting that scientific process and logic are often applied outside their functional jurisdiction as well.

In the end, whether or not our actions and preferences can be backed by some commonly-agreed-to set of axioms and rules may not be at all important. We should totally be cool with being free of them in the many cases where it just doesn't matter.