Credulity

{{Psychology}}
{{sources needed}}
{{Ctransquote|I'm [[Superstition|superstitious]], because people need to believe something, and believe lies when they can't find anything true to believe.|Spanish|Soy [[Superstition|supersticioso]], porque el corazón del hombre necesita creer algo, y cree mentiras cuando no encuentra verdades que creer.|||Mariano José de Larra, ''La Nochebuena de 1836''}}
'''Credulity''' is the name of the phenomenon where some people just seem to be chomping at the bit to believe anything with only a small amount of questionable [[evidence]]. In day to day experience, it is what allows a person to accept the premise of a fictional movie including space flight, time travel, or other naturally incredulous experience. However, credulity is also what allows [[pseudoscience]] to flourish. It is marked by a poor understanding of [[logic]] and a tendency to be easily swayed by [[emotional appeal]]s and [[logical fallacy|logical fallacies]]. 

Credulity, like all [[epistemology|epistemological]] systems, is necessarily limited and cannot be both consistent and all-encompassing. This is easily seen as many ideas embraced by those with high credulity also have a wealth of evidence against them. In order to hold onto credulity with one set of ideas, it is often necessary to withhold it from others. 

While it might be possible for someone to hold credulity to any idea they are confronted with, causing rapid flip-flopping, most people instead compartmentalize their credulity by embracing some ''cause du jour''. Sometimes this can be a single issue, such as a person embracing [[astrology]] and [[horoscope]]s while being able to maintain healthy [[skepticism]] about other ideas. 

In order to keep credulity for an idea (and avoid the [[cognitive dissonance]] associated with admitting to being wrong), it is often necessary for a person to embrace a form of extreme [[pseudoskepticism]]. For example, someone who has embraced the [[pseudoscience]] of [[homeopathy]] may buy into any claim by anyone about the [[magic]] of [[Water memory|water]], but then turn around and deny something like the [[germ theory of disease]] — no matter how strong the evidence. This [[Confirmation bias|odd mixture]] of credulity and pseudoskepticism may explain why people who embrace [[woo]] and other [[crank]] ideas are often the most [[Open mind|closed-minded]] of people. 

Credulity does not have to be limited to ideas. Often it manifests itself in personality issues, with people embracing complete credulity for their favorite writer, politician, radio shock jock, or even comic strip artist. Fans may reach the point where they believe anything the person says about anything no matter what the evidence is ("[[Donald Trump]] says [[climate change]] is a [[China|Chinese]] [[hoax]]!").<ref group=note>[[Climate change denial|Do you believe him?!]]</ref> Credulity can manifest itself in areas far outside of science, even with people who have embraced [[science]], the [[scientific method]], and [[empiricism]] having [[Inverse stopped clock|issues of credulity]] in other venues such as [[politics]] or [[religion]].

One of the most lucrative ways to take advantage of credulity is through the use of [[scam]]s, even transparently obvious and overdone ones like [[advance fee fraud]]. It is amazing that people still fall for Nigerian prince scams.

==See also==
{{Fun|Sucker}}
* [[Skepticism]] — Basically the opposite of credulity<ref group=note>There is some more nuance to this, as skeptics are generally willing to accept ideas that have good supporting evidence. Indeed, the main difference between a [[Skepticism|skeptic]] and a [[Pseudoskepticism|pseudoskeptic]] is that a skeptic has an [[open mind]] and is willing to revise their [[worldview]] when faced with new evidence (as long as that evidence is actually valid), while a pseudoskeptic will cling to their [[belief]]s [[Fractal wrongness|to the bitter end]], [[Not even wrong|no matter]] [[Logical fallacy|what]] [[Cognitive dissonance|hoops]] [[Denial|they have to jump through]].</ref>
* [[Open mind]] — i.e. one's willingness to modify one's own opinions
* [[Essay:Why are logical fallacies effective?]] — the answer can be summed up as "credulity mixed with [[List of cognitive biases|built-in flaws of human thought]]"

==Notes==
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[[category:psychology]]

Categories: psychology