Quote:
Originally Posted by Surly
I'm not a psychologist, and I don't even play one on TV. But the people I know who are psychologists (or who play them on TV) talk about confirmation bias, the tendency to accept evidence which supports one's prior beliefs, and ignore or reject evidence which doesn't. That seems to be what's mostly going on in these moan hoax arguments.
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Definitely. But it begs the question, how did they get those prior beliefs in the first place?
There are several theories about that, all of which may be true to greater or lesser extent in each individual case. One is the "mistrust all authority" mindset, which is closely related to the "big bad government always lies" perspective. There have been some indications that at least some HBs have religious leanings that make them doubt the validity of Apollo. And, of course, there are the psychological possibilities, such as "I'm the only one who's smart enough to have figured out THE TRUTH" or "I can get a lot of attention by challenging this sacred cow".
And some, of course, just want to make a lot of money by applying the P.T. Barnum maxim.