People who belief in the Flat Earth Theory hold the conviction that the earth is flat and not round. This theory started to become more and more popular around 2009 and is growing ever since. It is considered one of the most controversial conspiracy theories existing. They claim the Earth to be flat because for them it feels like and looks like it is. The ones believing in this Theory call themself  “The Flat Earth Society” and the importance about this is that even though there is evidence to the contrary they claim those “to be fabrications of a ‘round Earth conspiracy’”(Wolchover).

The believers in the Flat Earth Theory think that the “Earth is a disc with the Arctic Circle in the center and Antarctica, a 150-foot-tall wall of ice, around the rim.”(Wolchover). Believers claim that the NASA guards protect those ice walls from people that try to climb over and fall from the disc. In their eyes they also believe that Earth’s gravity is an illusion and objects do not accelerate downward, they are “driven up by a mysterious force called dark energy”.

On the opposite end, there are countless photographs, videos, and imagery from astronauts and from the International Space Station that is enough evidence to show that the Earth is actually round, but the interesting part here is that even though there is evidence that prove their claims wrong in their eyes it is not considered real evidence and faked by the government.

Those who believe in it most likely misinterpret the evidence and are only looking for beliefs that would confirm their owns. This is also called confirmation bias. In this case they ignore the real evidence that the earth is round and label them as ‘fake’, whereas when something in any way would support their beliefs has to be correct. Another cognitive contribution is groupthink, which is a concept that people within a group “value harmony and coherence above rational thinking”(PsychologyToday). This often results in dysfunctional outcomes and irrational beliefs. In this case, Flat Earth Society members do not want to doubt or judge the others beliefs and therefore strengthen their owns.

The flat Earth model started in the ancient where many cultures believed in a flat Earth “until the classical period,the Bronze Age” (Wikipedia). It became more controversial again, because the moon landing in 1959 came with a lot of skepticism. Flat earth theorists  believe that the moon landing was fake and the pictures and audios recorded from that time were fabrications. They believe that GPS devices and maps are fake and that the International Space Station is a fake space station, believing it would be cheaper to promote a fake station rather than build a real one. The primary social influence that maintains their belief is groupthink. Social reinforcement form like-minded people allows them to feel sane when they speak of the topic and feel that their opinions are respected and justified.

Even though this theory can be proven wrong by a lot of evidence, the human brain and different psychological concept show how one can persists with their beliefs due to groupthink or biases. Human also love searching for meaning and drawing connections between things that sometimes have no tangible connection between them. It is simply human nature.

Citations

https://www.livescience.com/24310-flat-earth-belief.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/basics/groupthink

The extraordinary belief I am interested in involves superstition called “Bad Luck”, especially the number 13 and conspiracy behind it. It is considered one of the more common superstitious beliefs that are found around the world and known as a synonym for “Bad Luck”. Research shows that 1 out of four people consider themselves superstitious. The interesting aspect about “Bad luck” is that it is so universal and anywhere you go you discover a new/different sign of bad luck. It is common to see people avoid the number 13 in and around elevators, hotels, airlines, etc.

There is a lot of controversy around the statistical proof to support this superstition. While some researchers state that, “No data exists, and will never exist, to confirm that the number 13 is an unlucky number”, there should not be a reason to think that any number is more unlucky than another. However, others published findings that indicates otherwise. As an example, they analyzed traffic flow and car accidents on a motorway during 5 months that the 13th fell on a friday during a 2 year long period. Comparing these data to data collected on other dates it showed that transport accidents “increased by as much as 52% percent”.

A cognitive contribution to this belief could be religious, which I will expand on later, but also the term called triskaidekaphobia, which is an irrational fear of  the number 13. Another reason the belief exist can be due to confirmation bias and self fulfilling prophecies. Confirmation bias is the tendency to ignore evidence that would disconfirm your belief and only focus on evidence that would ‘confirm’ their existing beliefs. Self fulfilling prophecy can be another factor while superstitious belief exists. It is a belief that tend to become true, because we already belief in it, which shapes our way of acting towards it and reinforces the belief to become true.

This extraordinary belief  about the unlucky number 13 can be traced back to biblical times.  Over time, there have been various reasons why people consider it an unlucky number, tracing back to Christianity. “Some believe this is unlucky because one of those thirteen, Judas Iscariot, was the betrayer of Jesus Christ. From the 1890s, a number of English language sources relate the “unlucky” thirteen to an idea that at the Last Supper, Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th to sit at the table.” It is likely that many Christians hold this extraordinary belief.

After reviewing the entire concepts and history of the extraordinary belief of number #13, it mostly seems that Heuristics such as Confirmation Bias and self-fulfilling prophecies play a role. It seems that many groups of people take an example from history where the number 13 may have been unlucky and use it to justify the belief as a whole.  

Cited work:

https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-superstition-and-why-people-believe-in-the-unbelievable-97043

https://www.livescience.com/14147-number-13-bad-luck.html

http://www.triskaidekaphobia.info

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychology-writers/201210/using-self-fulfilling-prophecies-your-advantage

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_(number)