Cognitive Biases and a General Failure To Think

A friend sent me an anti-vaxxer piece today, marvelling at how “well-researched” it was.  Yes, it comprised 20 pages of “facts” surrounding big pharma, falsified test results, how vaccines have resulted in disease and death, etc.

But where does all this data come from? The QAnon people can point to hundreds of websites that “verify” that Bill Gates’ mission is to enslave the Earth’s population, that the election was stolen, that “chemtrails” are part of the government’s attempt to control all American citizens, that the Democrats are led by satanic pedophiles, that California’s wildfires were started by space lasers that identify as Jewish, and so forth.

Yes, we all have cognitive biases that force us to try to confirm–rather than challenge–what we already believe, but the last few years have taken us to a place that couldn’t have been imagined a decade ago.

We also have lost a step in terms of logic and data analysis.  Check out the “Did You Know” piece here. If only 14% live longer, that means that 86% don’t live as long, thus, spicy foods would be a kind of poison.