Pages Tagged with #psychology

What Causes Religion and Superstitions?, in the following sections:

• 4. The Subconscious
• 4.1. Hidden Inner Causes
• 3.2. Hyperactive Agent Detection Device (HADD)
• 2.3. Political Power Struggles and Identity Reinforcement: Why are People Religious?
• 4.4. Myths and Ritual: Leftovers from a Pre-Literate Humanity
• 4.3. The Fear of Death and Desire for the Afterlife
• 5.1. Simple Dogmatic Answers in a Complex World
• 3.4. Hallucinations, Fasting and Sensory Deprivation
• 5.5. Desperate Times: Religious Experiments Including Conversion, Superstitions and Lucky Charms

Errors in Thinking: Cognitive Errors, Wishful Thinking and Sacred Truths, in the following sections:

• 1.5. We Dislike Changing Our Minds: Status Quo Bias and Cognitive Dissonance
• 1.7. Emotions: The Secret and Honest Bane of Rationalism
• 2.1. Perception is Influenced By Expectation: You Can't Always Trust Your Senses
• 1.4. The Forer (or Barnum) Effect
• 2.3. Our Attempts to be Logical
• Top of page / intro

Pseudoscience and Health: The World of Alternatives (to Truth), in the following sections:

• 3.3. Personal Approaches Feel Better Than Impartial Medical Ones
• 3.4. The Forer (Barnum) Effect
• 3.1. The Placebo Effect and the Positive Effects of Delusion
• 3.2. Statistical Regression and Desperate Times

Psychosomosis - the Placebo and Nocebo Effects: Curing and Causing Disease with the Mind, in the following sections:

• 3.1. The Negative Effects of Suggestion and Expectation
• 4. Meditation
• 2. The Placebo Effect and the Positive Effects of Mental Attitudes
• Top of page / intro

Meditation, in the following sections:

• 1. Psychosomosis - the Placebo and Nocebo Effects: Curing and Causing Disease with the Mind
• 2. Mastering the Mind
• Top of page / intro

Why Question Beliefs? Dangers of Placing Ideas Beyond Doubt, and Advantages of Freethought, in the following sections:

• 2.1. Everyday Errors in Thinking Continually Skew Our Beliefs and Experiences
• 2.2. We Often Do Not Know the Reasons for Our Own Behaviour
• Top of page / intro

Altruism is an Illusion, in the following sections:

• 5. Conclusion
• 4. The Compatibilist Position
• Top of page / intro

The Placebo Effect and the Positive Power of the Mind on Health, in the following sections:

• 1.6. The Benefits of Dealing With Stress Well
• 1.1. The Suppressing of Pain by the Prefrontal Cortex
• Top of page / intro

The False and Conflicting Experiences of Mankind: How Other Peoples' Experience Contradict Our Own Beliefs, in the following sections:

• 6. Explaining Our Experiences
• 9. Concluding: Errors in Thinking, and Preventative Steps
• 5.1. Hallucinations, Sensory Deprivation and Fasting: The Physiological Causes of Religious and Mystical Experiences

Astrology: Do Observed Positions of the Planets Influence Our Lives in Mystical Ways?, in the following sections:

• 6. Thinking Errors
• 3.3. The Forer/Barnum Effect (The Abuse of Psychology)

The Importance of Current Events is Amplified by our Egos, in the following sections:

• 2. Cataclysm and Chaos is Always on the Horizon
• 1. Current Events and the Ego

The Illusion of Choice: Free Will and Determinism, in the following sections:

• 3.1. The Subconscious and the Illusion of Choice
• 5.2. Altruism and Determinism

Simple Answers in a Complex World: What Causes Religion?, in the following sections:

• 2. Personal Meaning
• Top of page / intro

The Human Ego, in the following sections:

• 5. Species-Wide Egotism in Religion
• Top of page / intro

Experiences of God are Illusions, Derived from Malfunctioning Psychological Processes, in the following sections:

• 2. Hallucinations and Fasting
• Top of page / intro

Don't Panic: The World is Not About to End and Western Culture is Safe, in the following sections:

• 2.2. Cataclysm and Chaos is Always on the Horizon
• 1. Current Events and the Ego

Emotions Are Biological: How Biochemistry and Neurology Account for Feelings, in the following sections:

• 6. The Limbic System
• Top of page / intro

Causes of Belief in the Afterlife and Differences Across Religions and Cultures, in the following sections:

• 1. Hiding Death: Out of Sight, Out of Mind
• 6. There Are No Souls

Broken Toys and Magical Thinking, in the following sections:

• 1. Fixing Our Broken Toys is Often Too Difficult
• 2. Magical Thinking

Perception is Influenced By Expectation: You Can't Always Trust Your Senses, in the following sections:

• 2. Expectation and Pain: The Placebo Effect
• Top of page / intro

Why Are There So Many Religious People? Parents, Local Culture and Inertia, in the following sections:

• 1. The Parents
• 3. Inertia

Religion as the Result of Human Mythmaking, in the following sections:

• 3. Simple Answers
• Top of page / intro

Religious Extremism, in the following sections:

• 1.1.4. Something Personal
• 2.1. Reactions to Multiculturalism

Political Power Struggles and Identity Reinforcement: Why are People Religious?, in the following sections:

• 2. Identity Reinforcement
• Top of page / intro

Pareidolia - Seeing False Patterns in Random Data: Faces in Toast, Bible Codes and Conspiracy Theories, in the following sections:

• 4. Hyperactive Agent Detection Device (HADD)
• 1. Apophenia

Why do People Join New Religious Movements?, in the following sections:

• 1. Simple Answers and Meaning
• 3. Golden-Age Romanticism and Escapism

The Future of Human Telepathy

The Biology of Dreaming

Military Inspections: What's the point?

Self Mastery, Self Development and Lifestyle Improvement

Split Brain Studies: One Mind per Hemisphere

Critical Thinking on Acupuncture: How Does it Work?: 4. The Placebo Effect

Souls do not Exist: Evidence from Science & Philosophy Against Mind-Body Dualism: 1. The Physical Brain is the Source of Emotions, Personality and Memory

The Limbic System: The Source of Emotions in the Human Brain

Subjectivism and Phenomenology: Is Objective Truth Obtainable?: 4. Thinking Errors

Homocentricity or Anthropocentrism: Why Do Religions Think Humanity Is Central to God and Creation?

Pride and Ego as a Cause of Religion

Religion and Intelligence: 3. The Benefits and Side-Effects of Questioning Beliefs

Fundamentalism and Literalism in World Religions: 2. Why Question Beliefs? The Descent Into Uncompromising Fundamentalism

Happiness and Religion: Does Belief Make You Happy Or Does Unhappiness Make You Believe?: 1.1. Do Unhappy People Become More Religious? Is it a Coping Mechanism?

Alienation and Dangerous Sexual Deviation: Society's Reaction to Child Abuse Often Makes Things Worse: 4.1. Self-Suppression and Mental Health

Why are Our Memories Unreliable?: 4. Thinking Errors

Zen Buddhism: 2. Meditation

The Christian Dark Ages of Europe: 2.4. Why Question Beliefs? Dangers of Placing Ideas Beyond Doubt, and Advantages of Freethought

What is Skepticism and Its Values?: 1. The Problem: We are Easily Mistaken

We Easily Mislead Ourselves With Unfounded Stories

The EU is Always in Deep Crisis: Decades of Warnings: 3. The Importance of Current Events is Amplified by our Egos

Hyperactive Agent Detection Device (the Psychology of Religion and Superstition)

Scientific Theories Must Make Way for New Evidence: 1. Errors in Thinking: Cognitive Errors, Wishful Thinking and Sacred Truths

Some People Become Religious to Aid Motivation to Reform Their Behaviour: 1. Simple Answers in a Complex World

Animism: 1. Hyperactive Agent Detection Device (the Psychology of Religion and Superstition)

Religion and the Fear of Death

General Neophobia in Everyday Life: Humankind's Fear of Progress and Change: 2.2. Current Events Ego

The Forer (or Barnum) Effect

Hallucinations, Sensory Deprivation and Fasting: The Physiological Causes of Religious and Mystical Experiences

Does Homeopathy Work? What are the Risks and Dangers?: 6. So What is This 'Placebo Effect' Which Makes Homeopathy Seem Effective?

Faith Healing: Delusion, Child Abuse and Theological Concerns: 1.3. Psychosomosis

We Dislike Changing Our Minds: Status Quo Bias and Cognitive Dissonance

Spiritualism: 3.3. The Forer (Barnum) Effect

A Realistic Guide to Dream Interpretation: 1. The Elements of Dreams

Statistical Regression: Causes of Strange Beliefs and Pseudoscience

Free Speech and Defamation of Religion: 2. The Benefits of Questioning Ideas Outweigh Religious Sensitivities

Rationalism Versus Irrationality: Are Emotions Useful?