Preexisting bias problem in geology
Dr. Stanovich said something during our discussion that I wish I caught and followed up on at the time. We were talking about how people approach psychology with a variety of preexisting biases, and he contrasted this with geology, saying that people didn't have this emotional attachment to how sediments form in the geologic record. I disagreed at the time, but didn't think it was worth interrupting his flow to bring it up. There are people who have emotional attatchments to the way sediments formed: Creationists. According to the "Creation Science" website:
More than 27 billion tons of river sediments enter the oceans each year. Probably the rate of sediment transport was much greater in the past as the looser topsoil was removed and as erosion smoothed out Earth’s terrain. Even if erosion has been constant, the sediments now on the ocean floor would have accumulated in only 30 million years. No process has been proposed which can remove 27 billion tons of ocean sediments each year. So, the oceans cannot be hundreds of millions of years old.
As Dr. Stanovich notes, the pre-existing bias problem appears in every science. It can occur with all the emotional attachment possible in any field. In the United States,nearly one half of the population are creationists. Twice that many (that is, everyone) has these preconceived, emotionally-held beliefs in psychology, though. I wonder what differences arise when trying to inform laypersons about evidence disproving the Judeo-Christian creation myth versus informing them about evidence disproving the "we use 10% of our brain" myth.
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: religion evolution episode 1
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5/2/2009 3:53 PM
Psyconoclasm wrote:
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Below
the fold is the transcript of my interview with Dr. Keith Stanovich.
I didn't realize how much work it was to transcribe a conversation!
I'm thinking of farming out future episodes to a transcription
service, but that runs $40-$50/episode, and I'm not interested in
spending a whole lot of money into this project quite yet. -
5/2/2009 4:09 PM
Psyconoclasm wrote:
Below the fold is the transcript of my interview with Dr. Keith Stanovich. I didn't realize how much work it was to transcribe a conversation! I'm thinking of farming out future episodes to a transcription service, but that runs $40-$50/episode, and I'm not interested in spending a whole lot of money into this project quite yet. I haven't even forked over the money to pay for hosting (hence the GoDaddy banner ad up top). Isn't it great to live at a time when this is possible -- ... -
5/2/2009 8:24 PM
Psyconoclasm wrote:
style type="text/css">
Below the fold is the transcript of my interview with Dr. Keith Stanovich.
I didn't realize how much work it was to transcribe a conversation!
I'm thinking of farming out future episodes to a transcription
service, but that runs $40-$50/episode, and I'm not interested in
spending a whole lot of money into this project quite yet. -
5/2/2009 8:28 PM
Psyconoclasm wrote:
Below the fold is the transcript of my interview with Dr. Keith Stanovich. I didn't realize how much work it was to transcribe a conversation! I'm thinking of farming out future episodes to a transcription service, but that runs $40-$50/episode, and I'm not interested in spending a whole lot of money into this project quite yet. I haven't even forked over the money to pay for hosting (hence the GoDaddy banner ad up top). Isn't it great to live at a time when this is possible -- for nearly free? I've peppered the transcript with links expanding on some topics or terms we referenced in passing, including some blog posts I've written (or will soon write). Some are links to Wikipedia, some are just fun. I may come back and add links as I produce more content and come across more cool stuff; feel free to offer suggestions in the comment section for stuff I can add. I hope you enjoy, leave a comment and show some love! -
5/2/2009 8:29 PM
Psyconoclasm wrote:
Below the fold is the transcript of my interview with Dr. Keith Stanovich. I didn't realize how much work it was to transcribe a conversation! I'm thinking of farming out future episodes to a transcription service, but that runs $40-$50/episode, and I'm not interested in spending a whole lot of money into this project quite yet. I haven't even forked over the money to pay for hosting (hence the GoDaddy banner ad up top). Isn't it great to live at a time when this is possible -- for nearly free? I've peppered the transcript with links expanding on some topics or terms we referenced in passing, including some blog posts I've written (or will soon write). Some are links to Wikipedia, some are just fun. I may come back and add links as I produce more content and come across more cool stuff; feel free to offer suggestions in the comment section for stuff I can add. I hope you enjoy, leave a comment and show some love!
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5/2/2009 8:30 PM
Psyconoclasm wrote:
Below the fold is the transcript of my interview with Dr. Keith Stanovich. I didn't realize how much work it was to transcribe a conversation! I'm thinking of farming out future episodes to a transcription service, but that runs $40-$50/episode, and I'm not interested in spending a whole lot of money into this project quite yet. I haven't even forked over the money to pay for hosting (hence the GoDaddy banner ad up top). Isn't it great to live at a time when this is possible -- for nearly free? I've peppered the transcript with links expanding on some topics or terms we referenced in passing, including some blog posts I've written (or will soon write). Some are links to Wikipedia, some are just fun. I may come back and add links as I produce more content and come across more cool stuff; feel free to offer suggestions in the comment section for stuff I can add. I hope you enjoy, leave a comment and show some love!
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