[–] KiloJuliet 0 points 5 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago
People would much rather believe what is popular than to know the truth. It's about vanity, fitting in, etc. They are just lonely people who are willing to forsake reality for a feeling of fitting in.
[–] Konran [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Yes - the problems of vanity and fitting in I can agree with.
In respect to them all being 'lonely people' - I'd like to believe that, but I have found that family and friends of mine are also guilty of this phenomena. To be honest I think this all comes down to choice. If people really want to take responsibilty for the information they receive then there are many alternative sources that they can go to nowadays for a more wide-ranging set of views. In a way I think it more likely suggests laziness rather than loneliness, with many people citing that they are too busy trying to 'win' in life to be able to research the news for themselves.
[–] wonkifier 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago (edited ago)
This is /v/criticalthinking, right?
Why aren't we discussing whether the original statement is actually true... Do the majority of people take comments they hear as gospel?
What comments? If someone uncritically accepts a single comment, but not others, do the fall into that category?
[–] newoldwave ago
It's the "go along with the crowd" mentality.
[–] CommonSense ago (edited ago)
Because that is how they are raised. Government takes children from parents at age 4-5, and starts cramming propaganda in them for 40 hours a week. And, then, they reward them for being able to regurgitate that information onto paper. They don't teach them how to think critically, and they are very systematic about which information they allow them to have.
You literally spend your whole life doing exactly what you're asking about.
[–] TalkingAnimal 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
We use heuristics to determine whether or not something is valid. One of those things is polished appearance. One teenager I knew who I thought was intelligent was convinced Obama wanted to brand HIV+ people because a link was shared with her on Facebook. It looked polished. It looked like a news site similar to CNN or FoxNews. I asked her to click on their home page, and it became clear these were prank news articles (celebrity deaths for living celebrities, and so on).
The other is the transitive property of trustworthiness. I trust my cousin. If my cousin tells me something, I generally believe it to be true. If someone he trusts told him something untrue, and he relayed it to me as true, I would likely believe it if it did not set off any warning bells. This is the basic mechanism by which people take things they read as "gospel".
[–] nine4dnine 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I know a guy who verbatim tends to repeat things that he has heard other people say as though they are his original thoughts. It is the most annoying thing on the planet!
[–] newoldwave ago
Politicians have learned to take advantage of this. They'll get in front of a camera and spout an outlandish lie and later when caught out have one of their staff declare the boss accidentally misspoke. Meanwhile the lie was out there and many people only heard the lie and not the feeble retraction. I recall some host on MSNBC saying, during the 2012 election cycle, that Sarah Palin is trailer trash. Completely false and never retracted, but got away with it.
[–] Genghis_Khan 0 points 11 points 11 points (+11|-0) ago
I think the short answer is that most of the population simply lacks the intellect to really question anything they're told in any meaningful way apart from the most obvious of untruths. For example, "Greeks are lazy," while clearly false for being too broad and sweeping, feeds into people's natural desire to label things they don't know or understand, i.e. Greeks.
The people that feed us the information know this.
[–] Frak 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Exactly I feel as though most of the population has lost the ability to critically analyze information, or at least don't care enough about world events to analyze any further than what the media reports
[–] Evarett 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
Lots of people just dont have the time to critically think. Work is about 8 hours if not more. after you have to drive home most of the time. relationships like SO's which take a good amount of time. friendships need some time if you want it to continue. family obligations. getting food and other needless chores like changing car oil. just so many things take peoples time away that it leaves most people not wanting to critically think about helping the world. They have only enough time to help themselves. now if only work life didnt take up so much life, thats when I can see people, the modern people having the ability to think more often with full energy.
[–] Trypter 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
To build on that, the world and the life we live are often so busy and packed with events, decisions, circumstances, trials, and responsibilities that fact checking seems trivial when the facts don't directly affect your life.