Avril Lavigne was replaced by a look alike in 2003, after she died by suicide. The theory is that she was struggling with her fame and once she found out that her parents were getting a divorce, she killed herself. At this point the claim is that she was replaced by a look alike named Melissa who wrote about Avril’s death in her later albums. This conspiracy ebbs and flows, it resurfaces every few years and social media goes wild with theories about what happened to Avril. The first appearance of this theory was in 2012 on a supposed fan website for Lavigne that was (somewhat) poorly written in Portuguese.

There are many people who have come up with evidence that this is true, including, her face structure is different mostly her nose, she has gotten smaller in stature, and most prevalently, she said she would never wear preppy clothes and starting around the time they claim she died, she did start wearing “preppier” clothes. There are also theories that her voice sounds higher, her signature has changed, certain birthmarks or freckles have shown up or disappeared over time, and even that she started to do photoshoot and music videos showing more skin.

On the other side of this theory, people are confused as to why there would be an imposter in the first place. Stating that she wasn’t terribly popular or influential at the time, but they still wouldn’t have been able to hide news that she had killed herself. Avril has confronted the media saying that this conspiracy is dumb and of course she hasn’t been replaced, but isn’t that what a clone would say??

A few years later a mysterious internet goer posted on a blog that they had made the whole theory up to see how easy it was to make people online believe what you say, after this people still believed that Avril was dead, and Melissa had taken over as New Avril. They had invested so much, both emotionally and in researching her that they couldn’t not believe the theory. It was hard for people to believe that Avril may have just changed overtime and moved away from her angsty teenage-like ways that everyone came to know so well.

Contextually, these beliefs started online, in blog-form. It didn’t take long for the “news” to spread to different websites and social media platforms, it started with fans of Avril and eventually got to the point that anyone and everyone was catching wind of it and spreading it further. The influence of the internet keeps this theory alive, even after people have been told that it isn’t real, and it was made up. Overall, people find it hard to disbelieve something once they have been shown ‘solid’ evidence that it was real. Many people find it hard to not notice all of the little differences between ‘Original Avril’ and ‘New Avril’. It is too weirdly interesting of a topic for them to not investigate it and find out whether or not what they see is what they should believe.

Sources:

“Avril Lavigne Is Not Dead – & She’s Not Dumb.” FASHION Magazine, 12 Feb. 2019, fashionmagazine.com/culture/avril-lavigne-conspiracy-comeback/.

Bassil, Ryan. “Investigating the Conspiracy That Says Avril Lavigne Was Killed off and Replaced With an Actress.” Noisey, VICE, 1 Oct. 2015, noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/r7pebb/was-avril-lavigne-killed-off-and-replaced-with-an-actress.

“Why Is Nobody Talking About The Fact Avril Lavigne Died And Was Replaced With A Clone?” Punkee, 13 July 2018, punkee.com.au/nobody-talking-fact-avril-lavigne-died-replaced-clone/52385.

Feinberg, Ashley. “Did Avril Lavigne Die in 2003?: An Internet Conspiracy, Explained.” Gawker, blackbag.gawker.com/did-avril-lavigne-die-in-2003-an-internet-conspiracy-1734185142.

“Avril Lavigne Murió y Fué Sustituida!” Avril Lavigne Murió y Fué Sustituida!, avrilestamuerta.blogspot.com/.

The first documented case of spontaneous human combustion, (also cited as preternatural combustibility, or auto-oxidation), which reached print in 1763, set off a fire-storm of bewilderment and fascination from both the general public and scientific community due to its cause being shrouded in the unknown. This phenomenon involves an individual suddenly becoming engulfed in flames, with the fire usually fixated on a specific region of the body. The inferno appears to arise quite literally out-of-nowhere, as the flames do not originate from any known source within the victim’s environment (Whittington-Egan, 2012). Even more striking, in some cases, an individual’s body can be torched beyond recognition, while items near the victim, such as furniture and room furnishings, are left completely unscathed. This anomaly was such an avid concern for those living (in France, particularly) during the 1800s, that several prominent authors from that time period composed stories with fictional characters who all met their demise via unexplained combustion (LiveScience, 2013). There has been back-and-forth within the scientific community regarding alternative explanations for this phenomenon, however, controversy was really stirred up in September 2011, when a coroner from Ireland ruled a 76-year-old cadaver’s cause of death’ as likely due to spontaneous human combustion (Whittington-Egan, 2012). Ultimately, the fear of an unknown catalyst/cause for such an impromptu death is what continues to stoke believers’ fears.

Beginning with the common description of a typical victim, most charred remains belong to “elderly, overweight Caucasian women who are socially isolated and have consumed a large amount of alcohol” (Byard, 2016). In fact, alcoholism was once outlined as a leading component to the occurrence of spontaneous human combustion; however, today, this piece of the belief has been reduced to nothing more than mere folklore. Believers of spontaneous human combustion point to a variety of explanations, which fluctuate from religious interpretations to more scientific arguments. Some believers of spontaneous human combustion blame some holistic force with an intent to punish plus-size, alcoholic women who are merely driven by gluttony. Others claim that “movement of vital humors or blood particles within the body” can spark an involuntary fire; yet, others suggest a range of explanations, including flammable phosphates within the body or gastro-intestinal gases that interact poorly when released from an individual (Byard, 2016). The most well-conceived justification, the ‘wick or candle effect’, conjures up the notion that perpetual alcohol consumption can lend itself to much more flammable human fat, which then seeps into an individual’s clothing or bed sheets, allowing them to act as a ‘human wick’ (Byard, 2016).

Nonbelievers point to an assailant-set fire (following a homicide or other crime, with the intent to destroy evidence) to explain the absence of signs of smoke inhalation in a victim’s toxicology report; or, victims’ bodies were set aflame and then moved to a new location—this would explain the lack of fire damage to any immediate surroundings. Additionally, this phenomenon has only been displayed in human beings, despite our close ancestral lineage to primates—nonbelievers point to this fact as lack of evidence to support claims of an anatomical or physiological cause (Byard, 2016). Finally, and quite possibly, the most important of all, there has never been a documented eyewitness to any proposed case of spontaneous human combustion, therefore, it is quite possible that any outside witness fled the scene of the crime.

The belief in spontaneous human combustion, particularly during the 1800s, lent itself to some psychological fear instilled in commoners by the Church. Religious texts extended themselves from a interventionist perspective, where threats of spontaneous human combustion were often combined with an individual’s lack of clerical devotion to God or interaction with the Devil. Further analysis of the belief touches on the idea of “purification by fire”, in which an individual’s last hope involves giving him/herself up to personal demons in order to maintain some sanctity with God (Levi-Faict & Quatrehomme, 2011). Interestingly enough, this public fixation on spontaneous human combustion also aligns with societal expectations that outline what is both appropriate and worthy for a citizen (especially a 19th century woman, at the time) to engage in. As victims’ characteristics are often saddled up with reclusive, alcoholic women, perhaps this belief was invented by a society bent on forcing proper etiquette onto its people. France in the 1800s was set on dictating differences between its social classes of people, and the labeling of alcohol as a sinful drink was an attempt to discourage citizens from giving into bouts of drunkenness (Whittington-Egan, 2012). It was in this way, that any religious claims or beliefs regarding spontaneous human combustion were able to be sustained for decades, until explanations with greater pseudo-scientific backing were able to fill their place.

Ultimately, the beginning fad cases, involving supposed instances of spontaneous human combustion, all contain much more realistic and human-driven answers. For example, a case set in the 18th century involves an inn keeper who murdered his wife and then burned the remains in the inn’s chimney. Following an investigation, a coroner, obviously oblivious to the innkeeper’s homicidal act, claimed that the woman’s death was a direct result of spontaneous human combustion—taking it a step further, he also claimed that the fireplace was of some undisclosed “divine origin”, and it had “come to punish the wife for her overzealous consumption of alcohol” (Levi-Faict & Quatrehomme, 2011). From the historical context surrounding initial reports of spontaneous human combustion mentioned above, it becomes quite clear to see how this belief has been sustained for centuries. The transition of religious explanations to those that appear to backed by more scientific reasoning is what has maintained this extraordinary belief—however, the clear-cut truth resides in societal expectations perpetuating a false phenomenon whose current roots reside in pseudoscience. Putting it all into perspective, the threat of meeting one’s demise through the unknown—and rather unexpectedly, at that—is all that is needed to create some sort of explanation for slightly more tricky deaths.

References:

Byard, Roger W. (2016). The mythology of “spontaneous” human combustion. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology Journal, 12(3).

Levi-Faict, Thierry W. & Quatrehomme, Gérald. (2011). So-called spontaneous human combustion. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 56(5).

Radford, Benjamin. (Dec. 2013). Spontaneous human combustion: Facts & theories. LiveScience. Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/42080-spontaneous-human-combustion.html

Whittington-Egan, R. (2012). The enigma of spontaneous human combustion. Contemporary Review, (1704)69.

People who believe in the flat earth theory do not think the Earth is round. While on the planet’s surface, it feels and looks flat, so they believe they dismiss all evidence to the contrary. The flat earth society contains people from America and Europe and has been growing since 2009 (Wolchover 2017). Believing that the Earth is flat is one of the ultimate conspiracy theories. There is ample evidence that the Earth is round, but they believe since only what they can see from Earth’s surface is flat that that is the only conclusion.

They believe 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. The society members claim that NASA employees guard this ice wall to stop people from climbing over, and in theory, falling off the disc of Earth. This can be argued by the people in NASA who have been to space and have taken multiple pictures from satellites showing that the Earth is round. The flat-earthers believe that these photos taken from space are photo shopped. They also say that Earth’s gravity is an illusion, and that objects do not fall downward. Instead, the disc of Earth accelerates them upwards by a mystical force called ‘dark energy.’ This can easily be disputed by Einstein’s theory of relativity. They have a belief that GPS devices are manipulated to make aircraft pilots think that they are flying in straight lines above a sphere, but they are actually flying in circles above the disc of Earth. The reason why the world’s most powerful people are trying to conceal the true flat shape of the Earth is not certain by the Flat Earth Society, but it could be financial. On the Flat Earth society FAQ page, they explain that it would be logically cheaper to fake a space program than to actually have one. On the Flat Earth’s Society’s website, they have a lot of evidence supporting that the Earth is flat, that they explain is derived from many different aspects of science and philosophy. Another argument they make is relying on one’s own senses, meaning just looking around at the surroundings around you and seeing how everything is laid out pretty much flat. The horizon is a flat line, the clouds are flat, and the movement of the sun is flat, so our senses are telling us that we are not on a spherical heliocentric world.

A belief is a cognitive representation of the nature of reality, including our inner experiences, the world around us, and the world beyond. Flat earthers believe in the earth being flat as if the evidence for the earth being round is lacking. It’s not that they do not believe the evidence of the spherical earth, they just deny them. The believers are misinformed and misinterpreting evidence. This theory has a lot to do with confirmation bias. They are so attached to the belief that the Earth is flat that they deny that that there is an alternative explanation, even if demonstrated by science. There overall stance has a major distrust of authority, which sort of binds them to a sort of anti-globalist agenda. Overall, they have a conviction not to trust multinational corporations with unregulated political power, such as NASA.

The belief of the flat Earth was common in ancient Greece, India, China, and a wide range of indigenous cultures. The ancient Greek conception had some similarities with that of early Egyptian thought that the Earth was a large disc surrounded a huge body of water. Today, many people still believe this theory and it is very much accredited to celebrities that believe in this. Rapper B.o.B went on a twitter crusade where he demanded to know why is could not see the earths curve. It was also streamlined on the news when Mike Hughes launched himself and a $20,000 steam powered rocket into the air to prove that the earth is flat. Also, basketball player Kyrie Irving did a podcast where he could not be convinced that the earth was round.

The human brain is sort of made to believe and find conspiracy theories, meaning it has an ability to find meaningful patterns in the world around it.. People are very evolved in the ability to draw conclusions and predict outcomes based on observations and sensory data. The three main things that contribute to the appeal of the Flat Earth Theory is confirmation bias, proportionality bias and illusory pattern perception. Confirmation bias is when people’s willingness to accept that fit what they already believe. This is true with flat earthers because they totally discredit any scientific explanation against their beliefs. Proportionality bias is the inclination to believe that big events must have big causes. This relates to the flat earthers because we fund so much into NASA that they believe that NASA must be doing something that is not right. Illusionary pattern perception is to see causal relations where there may not be any. And this can be explained when they say how the horizon and clouds are flat looking to us that the Earth has to be flat.

Work Cited

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

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php/topic,1324.msg1312141.html#msg1312141

https://www.theawl.com/2017/12/flat-earthers-and-the-psychology-behind-conspiracy-theories/

https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/flat-wrong-misunderstood-history-flat-earth-theories/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/12/23/conspiracy-theory-psychology/815121001/

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/nation/2017/12/23/conspiracy-theory-psychology/815121001/?from=new-cookie

How do you begin to comprehend a denial of atrocity? How does one reconcile a genocide with, as scholar Deborah Lipstadt says, “the dubious distinction of being the best-documented genocide in the world” (TED & Lipstadt 2017) with the fact that there are individuals who discount every shred in the mountain of evidence? This is an understanding that I and every other Jewish individual must live with. Though we often feel that such beliefs are too crazy to be dangerous, I hope to help it be seen that these beliefs are far from innocuous.

We can define Holocaust Denial as an antisemitic belief that denies or manipulates, in part or whole, the reality of the Holocaust. (ADL 2019) Some common permutations of this include a rejection of the deaths of 6 million Jews at the hands of the Axis, a refutation of the method of any deaths which did occur, or assertions that the whole Holocaust is a hoax perpetuated by Jewish people to gain sympathy, money and the creation of Israel. (ADL 2019) All of these we can look into more deeply when we examine their evidence.

Yet “Deniers” come in many shapes and forms and may not always appear as you think. Surely, there are the usual suspects – skin-heads and those who explicitly call themselves Nazis or do not hide behind pretense (Southern Poverty Law Center 2017, Daily Stormer 2019).  But they are also academics, politicians, neighbors (Austin 2019). As of January 2019, recently polling found that 1 in 20 Britons or 2,739,500 people do not believe the holocaust happened (Sherwood 2019). As recent as 2018, many individuals in Europe and the United States were unable to name even basic facts about the Holocaust – including 66% of millennials being unaware of what Auschwitz is (Gstalter 2018). Now, this is not to say that ignorance is tantamount to denial, but it certainly forms a fertile bed for those who would seek to lie to and reshape the uninformed.

This belief is extraordinary because it actively denies a plethora of accounts, stories, documents and other evidence both from the victims and the perpetrators (TED & Lipstadt 2017). It is a remarkably persistent belief, and it would not be surprising if its adherents are growing year by year right now. The Anti-Defamation League (an organization dedicated to combating antisemitism and racism) reported that antisemitic incidents grew by approximately 57% in 2017. (ADL 2018) Examples of public figures either directly supporting or tied to those who engage in Holocaust denial are present in both the left (Alice Walker, Jeremy Corbyn) and the right (Arthur Jones, Arthur King, David Icke, Benoît Loeuillet) in the US, UK, and France. (Grady 2018, Mendick 2017, Wilner 2018, Madhani 2018, Willsher 2017) Further and most alarmingly, a recent CNN survey of Europe found that 1/3 of Europeans believe that Jews use the Holocaust to advance their own position or goals. (CNN 2018, Dashefsky, Arnold, Ira 2017) Assuming this is representative, that’s approximately 93.2 million people, a figure which gets only starker when you compare it to the total World Jewish population – only 14.5 million in 2017. (CNN 2018, Dashefsky, Arnold Ira 2017) Education may not be able to change the minds of those who have already written off this atrocity. But, for those not yet there, perhaps there is hope in spreading an understanding of the horror, and empathy for our still wounded communities.

Holocaust deniers use a variety of points to support their claims. Many of their points are a result of cherry-picked data or blatant falsehoods. In an effort to be “balanced”, I will present the claim initially and respond to each as it is relevant. My list of denier “facts” is not exhaustive, for as a belief and form of antisemitism, it constantly shifts to include new “details” and “revisions”.

First, deniers believe that the Diary of Anne Frank is a forgery. The diary was the result of Anne Frank, a young Jewish woman, recording her experiences as she hid with her family from the Nazis. Deniers say that due to the multiple editions of the diary or even its original form, it’s fake. (Lipstadt 2011) Alternately, that the diary is written in green ballpoint pen, something that wouldn’t be available to Anne easily at the time. (Lipstadt 2011) Both aspects of this are demonstrably false. Claims of the diary being fake were so numerous near its publication, that the Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation subjected the diary to many tests of its authenticity, showing that the handwriting, glue, paper, and ink of the diary were accurate both to the time period and to Anne herself. (Lipstadt 2011) Furthermore, that green writing was just on two pages, in the margins and never of the content itself. This brings into question whether the green writing was hers or an original editor but pulls it entirely away from the content. Finally, the reason for its multiple editions is due to Anne’s own rewrites and attempts at writing a novel based on her experiences. (Lipstadt 2011)

Another belief is that the death figures in the Holocaust have been inflated. The proof here is supposed to be of the World Almanac which in 1940 listed the Jewish population at 15,319,359, then listed the population in 1949 as 15,713,638. (Pilcher 2007) The listed population growth, therefore, throws into question how many people died in the holocaust if any. But that number came instead not from the actually listed number for the World Almanac: 11,266,600, but from an error-filled 1950 report. (Pilcher 2007) Another source of “inflation” pointed to is the plaque change that occurred at the Auschwitz state museum in which the memorial plaque listed 1 million deaths in 1991 but before this listed 4 million deaths. Interestingly, this actually was inflation, but not by Jewish people, by the Soviets. The Soviets increased the number of non-jews who died in the camp, the number of Jewish individuals remains. (Pilcher 2007) Another popular counterpoint beneath this heading is that Jews didn’t die, they simply fled to the USSR and US. This is oft touted by current tenured Northwestern University engineering professor Arthur Butz, who claims that the only reason Jews didn’t re-establish contact with their relatives is bad marriages. (Lipstadt 2011) No evidence truly supports this claim, but we do have extensive records of those who did die. Such as the use of Nazi gas buses, chambers and the actual admittance of murder by the perpetrators (Lipstadt 2011).

As understanding of torture has shifted, some hold Nazi confessions were produced under torture and are false. Many deniers believe that there never was an intent to mass murder Jewish people. Confessions during the war crime trials were done under duress, they say. Why wouldn’t someone confess to anything if it might save them from death? (Lipstadt 2011) Yet, many admissions of guilt were recorded after the sentencing of the Nazis, who therefore have no reason to lie. (Lipstadt 2011) Many explicitly claim the deaths of these Jews, such as Otto Ohlendorf, Einsatzgruppen commander who killed 90,000, or Adolf Eichmann, explicitly using the words gassing the Jews. (Lipstadt 2011)

Another belief is that documents of Auschwitz are false, as are other documents of death squads. Auschwitz often sits as the crown jewel in the minds of deniers. Deniers claim that many chambers in Auschwitz were used for delousing or that instead they were used for Air raids. They also supposed that the burning of dead bodies was a form of disease control. (Lipstadt 2011) Others claim that there were no gas chambers at all, a view espoused by Frenchmen Paul Rassiner, once imprisoned by the Nazis (Austin 2019, Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau. 2019). Yet this ignored the many records of the death camp and many admissions by those that work there. (Lipstadt 2011) The gas chambers themselves have locks from the outside in and specifically made parts that refer to gas. Further, were the dead burned for disease control, the monthly burn rate of 120,000 bodies would have to be the result of 4/5 of the camp population dying of typhus in 1 month. That isn’t possible in any epidemiological projection. (Lipstadt 2011)  Finally, it again ignores the admissions of the killing method by Nazi Hans Stark, quoted by Deborah Lipstadt in her BBC article and again by me here:

“As early as autumn 1941 gassings were carried out in a room…[which] held 200 to 250 people, had a higher than average ceiling, no windows, only a specially insulated door with bolts like those of an airtight door [Luftschutzer]. The room had a flat roof, which allowed daylight in through the openings. It was through these openings that Zyklon B in granular form would be poured.” (Lipstadt 2011)

When we accept that people do believe in these falsehoods when they actively or passively deny the Holocaust, the next logical question is why. Some extraordinary beliefs may come across as relatively harmless, but Holocaust Denial has a real effect on the survivors of the atrocity. I propose there are several cognitive contributions toward this belief, of which one might assign varying degrees of responsibility and malice to the individual.

First among them may be the Just World Hypothesis, which an idea that posits that people have a hard time believing such horrors may have actually occurred in the world.  The death of 6 million Jews, a 1/3 of our total population, certainly qualifies for that. Perhaps these people have family members that lived in Germany or are German. These people are not bad people, how could such a thing happen? It is much easier to think that Jewish people simply ran away from the country, or that we weren’t explicitly slated for extermination alongside Roma peoples. But the tattoos and records do not lie, they do not change.

Another possibility comes with the phenomenon of confirmation bias, in which one sees evidence and interprets it according to their own world view. In the libel trial of David Irving, (TED & Lipstadt 2017, Lipstadt 2011), the judge explicitly mentioned how the evidence provided by Irving were half-truths and misinformation. One may be able to look at a scattering of figures and pull out exactly what they want to see. Look – the Auschwitz plaque changed, the death figures were inflated, there are multiple editions of Anne Frank’s Journal! All part truths interpreted just enough to support a denier. In cases where evidence may be cherry picked, one might instead point to a logically fallacy in reasoning – The Texas Sharpshooter. Drawing lines around just the areas that one might consider supportive to their point, manipulating data and numbers to their benefit.

It may also be possible the idea of a True Believer factors into Holocaust denial. The social context for these types of beliefs are important, and our recent polling shows that deniers may find themselves in good company, at all aspects and levels of society as previously described.  Furthermore, when one comes out as a denier, it is nearly impossible to change, it is difficult to undo. Deniers then retreat to their own scientific journals, their own community to support themselves. Whenever they are challenged by the events of reality, the horrors suffered by Jewish people and others, they discount it. It’s much easier to simply stay within their areas of belief.

Finally, and most insidiously, are those who are themselves racist by the application of stereotyping heuristics. In these cases, many deniers know that what they are doing is false. Lipstadt speaks much to this often as she did in her talk and in her trial with denier David Irving (TED & Lipstadt 2017, Lipstadt 2011). They attempt to spread their falsehoods to make Nazism more acceptable, a sentiment supported by the Nazis themselves (Pilcher 2007). These people believe that Jews are conniving, sneaky, that we are doing this to get our own state, to get money (Pilcher 2007). David Irving himself once asked a survivor how much money she received for the tattoo on her arm (TED & Lipstadt 2017). The loudest in this category are often the easiest to spot, but the quiet ones are just as bad. In the hearts of these people, they believe that Jews will always be this way– an enemy, an otherworldly evil to be exterminated.

To the horrors of the Holocaust, we Jewish people have coined the words “Never again.”, but the truth of the matter is those outside of our group seem to be forgetting. Many Holocaust survivors are well past 80 years old, and a battery of psychological and cognitive faculties support the denial of our plight. People believe that a just world would never allow this, they think that their evidence supports them, and all else is a lie. Many have gone too far and now are True Believers, unable to turn back from what they have held before. Finally, more still ascribe to a racist heuristic, and will use Holocaust denial not out of belief, but as a weapon against Jews. In these cases, I write not for them, but for the others who have yet to be converted or are for some reason unsure. The only way that we can ensure this genocide does not repeat itself, is for the world to listen to us, hear us, and deny the deniers.

Works Cited:

ADL. (2018). 2017 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents. Retrieved from https://www.adl.org/resources/reports/2017-audit-of-anti-semitic-incidents

ADL. (2019). Holocaust Denial. Retrieved from https://www.adl.org/resources/glossary-terms/holocaust-denial

Austin, B. S. (2019). Holocaust Denial: A Brief History. Retrieved from https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/a-brief-history-of-holocaust-denial

CNN. (2018). A Shadow Over Europe. Retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/europe/antisemitism-poll-2018-intl/

DailyStormer. (2019). Tag Archives: Holocaust. Retrieved from https://dailystormer.name/tag/holocaust/

Dashefsky, Arnold/Sheskin, & Ira. (2017). Vital Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-of-the-world

Grady, C. (2018, December 20). The Alice Walker anti-Semitism controversy, explained. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/12/20/18146628/alice-walker-david-icke-anti-semitic-new-york-times

Gstalter, M. (2018, April 12). Poll: Majority of Americans say something like the Holocaust could happen again. Retrieved from https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/382843-poll-majority-of-americans-say-something-like-the-holocaust

Lipstadt, D. (2011, February 17). History – World Wars: Denying the Holocaust. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/deniers_01.shtml

Madhani, A. (2018, November 07). 56,000 voters in Illinois House district preferred Holocaust denier to moderate Democrat. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/07/holocaust-denier-neo-nazi-arthur-jones-chicago-illinois-dan-lipinski/1918933002/

Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau. (2019). Auschwitz-Birkenau. Retrieved from http://auschwitz.org/en/history/holocaust-denial/denial-forms/

Mendick, R. (2017, May 20). Jeremy Corbyn’s 10-year association with group which denies the Holocaust. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/20/jeremy-corbyns-10-year-association-group-denies-holocaust/

Pilcher, B. R. (2007, November 19). Holocaust Denial. Retrieved from https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/holocaust-denial/

Sherwood, H. (2019, January 27). One in 20 Britons ‘does not believe’ Holocaust took place, poll finds. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/27/one-in-20-britons-does-not-believe-holocaust-happened

Southern Poverty Law Center. (2017). Holocaust Denial. Retrieved from https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/holocaust-denial

TED, & Lipstadt, D. (2017, May 23). Behind the lies of Holocaust denial | Deborah Lipstadt. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ztdofPc8Rw

Willsher, K. (2017, March 15). France’s Front National suspends party official over Holocaust denial. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/15/benoit-loeuillet-france-front-national-holocaust-denial

Wilner, M. (2018, October 27). U.S. Rep. King after Auschwitz visit: “Bring pride back to Germany again”. Retrieved from https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/US-Rep-King-after-Auschwitz-visit-Bring-pride-back-to-Germany-again-570398

The anti-vaccination movement has taken social media by storm. From anti-vaccination propaganda, to websites, to support groups, there is a lot of controversy over the topic. The belief that vaccines can cause autism is considered to be an extraordinary belief, but is relatively new. The idea that vaccines are bad in general can be traced back to 19^th century England. People began refusing to vaccinate infants against smallpox, and those in positions of power were not ensuring that this was being enforced anyways. Eventually, there was a huge outbreak of smallpox, but this doesn’t discourage anti-vaccination supporters today. This belief is problematic because of a term called herd immunity. Herd immunity happens when a lot of people in one area receive a vaccine, therefore protecting those who cannot receive certain vaccines from life potentially threatening diseases. When people don’t vaccinate their children by choice, they are essentially breaking this herd immunity, which puts the lives of children who are unable to get vaccines at risk. Today, anti-vaccination propaganda claims that vaccines cause autism. Information that supports or deters these claims can be found anywhere on the internet, however it is not all true. Some articles that may seem scientific, are not; and this easy access to misinformation is actually influencing whether or not people are vaccinating their children.

There is a lot of factual evidence surrounding the positive side of vaccinations. Proof of this can be seen when something like herd immunity is compromised. If a preventable disease breaks out in a community, the people who can’t receive vaccinations are the ones who are most likely to get the disease. There has been research that suggests that there is no link between vaccines and autism, which is one of the main concerns of the anti-vaccination movement. The idea that the chemicals in vaccines are what causes autism have also been deterred. When individuals don’t vaccinate their children because they don’t want them to have autism, they are putting their child and the rest of the community at risk for potentially fatal diseases.

On the other hand, many anti-vaccination supporters also provide facts that appear to show vaccines do cause autism. Many supporters of the movement tend to believe that the side effects of vaccines are what cause autism.  Those who support vaccinations commonly assume that anti-vaccination supporters do not understand herd immunity, but they do. They understand that not vaccinating children has its risks, but the side effects are also risky. There have been articles about hiding information in regards to vaccines causing autism. One particular article states that a doctor hid the fact that he found evidence that vaccines cause autism. When a doctor provides information like that, it is hard to ignore, which is why many anti-vaccination supporters have clung to this idea.

So, why do people still believe that vaccines cause autism, even when there is evidence that it is not true? The social and cognitive aspects of this go hand in hand. One of the main reasons is due to the internet, specifically with the prevalence of social media. In today’s society, it is much easier to consult the internet as opposed to a health professional. Because of this, people wholeheartedly believe information that is actually misinforming them. They are viewing data and research that is not entirely accurate and taking it at face value. Some anti-vaccination supporters think that vaccines don’t work, and others believe conspiracy theories that the government is causing illnesses and diseases intentionally through vaccinations. Predatory journals, which can publish any information even if it is not scientifically accurate, can lead people to believe these things about vaccines as well. Regardless of the reason, anti-vaccination supporters will choose this data over advice from medical professionals.

Anti-vaccination supporters find evidence to support their case primarily on the internet. However, the reasons that they believe the information that they read can be different from person to person. Biases help a person maintain the beliefs that they have about a situation. In the case of anti-vaccination supporters, they are looking for evidence to confirm their ideas, rather than deny them. This is called a confirmation bias and can cause people to believe information that they see relevant to their topic, while ignoring counterevidence. There is also a term called the availability error, which refers to retaining information that one sees as significant. When it comes to anti-vaccination supporters, the anti-vaccination propaganda is more appealing, and therefore better remembered and enforced throughout their community.

American Academy of Pediatrics (2018). Vaccine Safety: Examine the Evidence. Retrieved from https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/immunizations/Pages/Vaccine-Studies-Examine-the-Evidence.aspx

Durbach, N. (2004). Bodily Matters: The Anti-Vaccination Movement in England, 1853-1907. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=cphJifOrs2AC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=anti+vaccination+movement&ots=zoc55jOaNs&sig=Sfd5eSEpJt05o_fpdr0gU-3QPWg#v=onepage&q&f=false

Health Impact News (2014). CDC Whistleblower Emerges: Admits Coverup on Vaccine Link to Autism. Retrieved from http://healthimpactnews.com/2014/cdc-whistleblower-comes-forward-admits-coverup-on-vaccine-link-to-autism/

Jameson, C. (2014). Vaccines Cause Autism. Age of Autism. Retrieved from https://www.ageofautism.com/2014/08/vaccines-cause-autism.html

Kata, A. (2012). Anti-vaccine activists, Web 2.0, and the postmodern paradigm- An overview of Tactics and tropes used online by the anti-vaccination movement. Vaccine, 30(25). Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X11019086

Van Zandt, P. (2019). Cognitive Biases [PowerPoint slides].

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2017). Vaccines Protect Your Community. Retrieved from https://www.vaccines.gov/basics/work/protection/index.html

The belief I chose to research is Slender Man, who is supposedly a spooky figure who takes the form of a pale man with no face and tentacles as arms who stalks and haunts people. This is a myth that was formulated through online forums that slowly grew in popularity and belief, particularly among teenagers. Information on this belief can easily be found on different news sources due to the crime that occurred because of it, and Slender Man can also be traced back to the original fictional posting on an online forum. This belief was popular in the early 2010’s, and it is important to know about because it was a widespread belief that caused two young girls to attack their friend in 2014.

There is much evidence this belief is based on a legend, and almost no evidence that Slender Man is an actual being. The evidence against the belief is that the original source of Slender Man can be found on a site called “Something Awful”, when users were prompted to use their Photoshop skills to come up with paranormal images. A man named Victor Surge created the first image of what is now known as Slender Man, and this image gained popularity as other users created new content such as fake newspaper articles and images about Slender Man. The further this fictional figure got from its original source, the more people started to believe he was an actual figure. The only evidence for the belief is the crime that occurred in Wisconsin as a result of this legend. Two 12-year-old girls claimed Slender Man commanded them to drag their friend into the woods and kill her. They believed that they were hearing Slender Man in their heads and that he would appear to them after their friend’s death. Since then, one of the girls has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

As the fictional character gained popularity and moved further from its original post, the origins of this character grew murky, and people began to believe that Slender Man may actually exist. Although there is no evidence this figure actually existed, people believed he did because of the sheer prominence of the character online, or an argumentum ad populum. Another reason for this belief is our tendency as humans to desire explanations for things, and in this case, spooky feelings and happenings could easily be blamed on the existence of a figure like Slender Man. This is an example of confirmation bias, and can be clearly seen in the attack that occurred in Wisconsin. There is no doubt that at least one, if not both of the attackers were dealing with dark thoughts, and all they had to do was log in on their online forum and stumble upon Slender Man content in order to find an explanation for what they were feeling.

This was a belief in the United States, where believers were bred through the internet. With the popularity of the internet in America growing at this time, the belief was cultivated rapidly, particularly among adolescents. This also takes into account the fact that Slender Man was only popular on the internet, and nothing else (such as the news or in movies). This creates an aura of spookiness and urban folklore that perpetuates the idea that it could, in fact, exist despite disconfirming evidence.

In conclusion, the belief in Slender Man that existed in the early 2010’s and even caused an attack in 2014 is based on a fictional character from the internet. However, this does not mean that the people who believed in Slender Man were crazy for believing it. The combination of popularity, confirmation bias, and the sheer growth of the internet during this time created an online culture that was perfect for breeding a belief in a legendary figure. Unfortunately, the belief in this figure did cause harm in the attack in 2014. Since then, there have been many media outlets who have clearly disproven this belief, and it is rare to find someone who still believes in Slender Man today.

Dewey, C. (2016, July 27). The complete history of ‘Slender Man,’ the meme that
compelled two girls to stab a friend. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/06/03/the-complete-terrifying-history-of-slender-man-the-internet-meme-that-compelled-two-12-year-olds-to-stab-their-friend/?utm_term=.96fc45c55887

Gabler, E. (2014, June 02). Charges detail Waukesha pre-teens’ attempt to kill classmate. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved from http://archive.jsonline.com/news/crime/waukesha-police-2-12-year-old-girls-plotted-for-months-to-kill-friend-b99282655z1-261534171.html/

It’s all started with an Open Letter To Kansas School Board, sent by a 24-year-old Organ State University graduate, Bobby Henderson, about the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM). In the letter, Henderson professed his faith that the world is actually created by a supernatural monster, who is accidently looks like a mass of noodles and meatball. To hide his own existence, he changed the result of every measurement in scientific experiments with his “Noodly Appendage”. And no one have noticed that is because the FSM is invisible and able to pass everything without noticed (Henderson, 2005). In this way, when human scientists tried to measure the age of earth, the amount of decayed Carbon-14 in the artifact is modified by FSM in the scientist back. Also, as the graph below suggests, the global warming is caused by the decrease number of pirates.

The reason Henderson describing such odd fact about a monster made of spaghetti is a satire to the intention of Kansas School to add Intelligent Design (ID) as part of the class context about the origin of life. As Henderson (2005) said: “I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories (FSM, ID, and Darwin’s evolution theory) are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; one third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence.”

After the letter was published in 2015, the Church of FSM came into mainstream and educed an energetic discussion in the internet. Many readers send their scoff, saying not only the belief of FSM is ridiculous, even the Evolution Theory is questionable because no one could provide any empirical evidence to prove the credibility of the two. As a response to this challenge in the same way, Boing Boing announced a $250,000 prize to any individual who could provide empirical evidence proving that Jesus is not the son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (Jurdin, 2005).

Through the hilarious story of FSM, we can see how it intentionally uses some common logic and cognitive mistakes that people easy to make. It seems tend to mock some religious system who built on the basis of self-contradictive fallacies by mimicking the trick they like to use. First of all, the theory is not satisfied the standard for a good theory in many ways. It’s not a falsifiable belief, for the FSM cannot be detected by human eyes, in this way no one could provide any concrete evidence to prove it is not exit. It’s not follow the right logic. The precondition of every suggests it made is based on the fact that FSM made the world. Also, it qualified several characteristics as a pseudoscience. Take their hypothesis on the relation between global warming and the shrink on the number of pirates for example, it uses the science words and method, but lacks peer reviews and rely on not comprehensively data (Ruscio, 2002). Besides, it’s impossible to prove a negative. In this case, it’s hard to list any evidence against the existence of FSM, because there not a way to measure any of its impact or trace.

However, although FSM is made of bunch seemingly convincing statements, many Pastafarianisms (believers of FSM) don’t really fall into the concept traps. They just attracted by FSM with its message of “ending oppression, fighting bigotry, and consuming pasta” (Andrew, 2017). In other words, people just gather and propagandize the doctrine of FSM to against the unordinary believes which trying to pretend as science or truth and passing that uncertified knowledge to kids in school, just like the Intelligent Design Theory. It is a sarcasm like the Russell’s Teapot and calling the attention for the possible cognitive mistakes in today’s worlds, with an adorable and ridiculous story about a monster of pasta and meatball.

Reference:

Andrew, R. (2017). INSIDE THE CHURCH OF THE FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER.
Retrieved from: https://www.saveur.com/pastafarians-church-flying-spaghetti-monster

Henderson, B. (2005). Open Letter To Kansas School Board. Retrieved from:
https://web.archive.org/web/20070407182624/http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/

Ruscio, J. (2002). Clear thinking with psychology: Separating sense from nonsense. Belmont,
CA: Brooks/Cole-Thomson Learning.

Jurdin, X. (2005). Boing Boing’s $250,000 Intelligent Design challenge (UPDATED: $1
million). Retrieved from: https://boingboing.net/2005/08/19/boing-boings-250000.html