2023-05-01 20:00:00
human being
It is an animal that needs a reason
happening in the world
for all events and phenomena
longing to understand
science is
to this kind of person
the reason for existence and
objectively and accurately
explain
science is
need a reason
for animals
It is a kind of final script
full of lies
from pseudo-religious organizations
The power to escape is also in science
“Do you know how many people in our country claim to be Jesus?” “A whopping 500 people!”
I will never forget this number I heard about 10 years ago from a prominent religious scholar. Unless we are the victims or their families, we have not been aware of how absurd the strange kingdom created by these self-proclaimed Jesus is. But not too long ago, the reality was a Netflix original <나는 신이다: 신이 배신한 사람들>As it became known all over the world through “Pseudo-religion,” the general public’s awareness of pseudo-religion began to rise.
Jang Dae-Ik Gachon University Entrepreneurship Chair Professor (Dean)
Many people around us who watched this documentary stick out their tongues at this bizarre kingdom, but on the other hand, they are very puzzled. Why couldn’t the victims reject this perverted situation in the first place? Could this be considered gaslighting in modern terms? However, since gaslighting is basically an interpretation that focuses only on the individual psychological effects of the victim and perpetrator, there is a limit to understanding the phenomenon of falling into a pseudo ‘group’. The real problem is basically collective.
The human psychology of losing one’s identity by being swayed by a certain group is a long-standing research topic in psychology. Suppose, for example, that a straight line is drawn on the left, and on the right there is a straight line (B) of equal length, a much shorter straight line (A), and a much longer straight line (C). If you ask which straight line is the same length as the straight line on the left, you would of course answer B. This is for people who do not have problems with visual perception. There is no disagreement or opinion in this judgment. Because the image formed on the retina cannot be deceived.
But let’s say that six out of seven people in the same room say the correct answer is A. Now it’s your turn. What would you say? ‘Are they blind? Is this A?’ Do you think about it and confidently say that the correct answer is B, or do you hesitate and answer with a slightly unconfident voice, ‘It’s like A’?
Already more than 70 years ago, psychologist Solomon Ashe actually conducted an experiment like the one above to see how much people are influenced by the judgments of others. The result was shocking. This is because about 76% of respondents to the previous question answered A at least once in multiple trials.
Psychologists call the act of changing one’s decision-making because others insist on it, regardless of the truth. Starting with Ash’s experiment, follow-up studies on human sympathy psychology have been pouring out like a flood. Among them, “The majority of Americans eat six meals a day and sleep only four or five hours” and “The life expectancy of a boy is 25 years. There have also been several reports of being swayed by obvious false propositions such as “. It is not difficult to make a fool of one person.
Don’t Ignore Victims’ Signs of Survival
What made Ash’s experiments really shocking was the fact that other people’s influence was also very influential on cognitive functions that were difficult for subjectivity to intervene, such as the length of a line segment. Even more, others are like a huge loudspeaker when it comes to accepting uncertain propositions in which subjectivity and opinions can intervene. A more shocking fact revealed through post-experiment interviews is that the participants already knew that answer A was incorrect. In other words, it is true that I agreed with the answer of others even though I knew whether it was the right answer or not. Why does this kind of synchrony occur?
According to evolutionary psychology, there are two main reasons for conformity. One is a defense mechanism to avoid being ostracized from the mainstream of the group. This is because it is judged that hiding one’s own beliefs or opinions is more advantageous for survival than being bullied by other members. This kind of conformity can occur when the pain of being rejected outweighs the shame or humiliation. But this sympathy is not forever. If the gap in judgment between me and others is too large and persists, a sense of skepticism rises, and when servility reaches the stage where self-esteem is lowered to the bottom, the deep knot with others begins to unravel. Because if self-esteem is too low, survival itself is threatened. The courage to appear on the documentary screen and do an interview confidently, despite all kinds of pain and nightmares to come, is this desperate struggle for survival.
It’s not something to just ignore that we’re not victims of cults. As the conformity experiment makes clear, we are social animals, capable of conforming to any outright lie. And we should not turn a blind eye to the struggles for survival of the victims who are living painful lives due to their sympathy. Because they have nothing more to lose, they are sending survival signals beyond servility and even risking shame (which they would rather die than). As it turns out, they were also the people who took the first steps in the community to live a wonderfully useful life with a sense of security belonging to a prosperous, common sense, and beautiful community. That is, until he is unluckily captured by blackened villains.
Another reason for conformity is the intuition that the decision-making of the majority in the group can be better than their own. We tend to overestimate what the majority claims. This is because the probability of learning more useful knowledge from others increases when the value of the knowledge possessed by the majority is higher than that of one’s own. However, this tendency works well in the hunter-gatherer era, but it is easy to make errors in today’s complex society with high uncertainty. We always have to accept the fact that I can be wrong, but the consensus of the majority can also be very wrong. In this context, the expression “I thought I was wrong” <나는 신이다>It is significant that this is the interview content that appears in common in many parts of “Wonderful Life”.
Cultivating critical thinking is the ‘road to salvation’
Then, what can be done to prevent this informational synchronism? Let’s go back to the ash experiment. What would have been the result if everyone had not answered the wrong answer, A, and three or four people had given another incorrect answer, C? Interestingly, the probability that the respondent gets the correct answer increases. This means that not only does it matter how many others around you can influence your decision-making, but it also matters how many different (or single) voices they articulate. In other words, we need to cultivate an open mind (critical thinking) to save us from pseudoscience.
Humans are animals that need a reason. We aspire to understand all the events and phenomena that occur in the world. Sometimes we find reasons that make no sense. Even when we lose or win money at a game of roulette, which can only be by chance, we come up with a ridiculous reason, such as the certainty that we won by dreaming of poop. Humans also had to find a reason for their existence. So, I tried to explain the reason for existence by creating a narrative called religion. However, our ancestors invented another special narrative beyond the grand narrative of mythology and religion.
that’s science A narrative designed based on proven facts! Science provides an objective and relatively accurate explanation of phenomena and reasons for existence to humans, animals in need of a reason. Science explores everything from the origin of the universe to the evolution of life and the process of human development, and serves as a guide to finding the meaning of existence based on this knowledge. So science is the final script for animals that need weaning. Science also has the power to escape from pseudo-religious groups that are dotted with lies.
#장대익의 #에볼루션 #cults