Of Jocks Straps & Conspiracy Theories


	Of Jocks Straps & Conspiracy Theories

fewstingscorpio

9-14-2009 6:59 PM

104 views

tags:

psychology, conspiracy, theories, cognition, happiness, perception

fewstingscorpio says:

The title pulled me right in,,,it could have been about anything!
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainstorm/200810/jock-straps-and-conspiracy-theories

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/2f8dbc45-90a0-4b87-a691-f5cf99b81043/D7131C4E-3DEC-4A1A-838A-255E5DF29A89/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainstorm/200810/jock-straps-and-conspiracy-theories" href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainstorm/200810/jock-straps-and-conspiracy-theories" style="font-size: 11px;">www.psychologytoday.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainstorm/200810/jock-straps-and-conspiracy-theories"><H1>
  				  Of Jock Straps and Conspiracy Theories  				    				</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainstorm/200810/jock-straps-and-conspiracy-theories"><P>That's from an essay titled "Baseball Magic" by the anthropologist George Gmelch. As I explained in my article on <A target="_blank" href="http://psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=20080225-000003">magical thinking</A>, feeling powerless increases <A class="pt-basics-link" title="Psychology Today looks at Magical Thinking" href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/magical-thinking">superstition</A>. Brains are pattern-finding organs, and when tossed into an unpredictable environment people will grasp for any straw they can get (maybe if I do A, B will happen.) As Gmelch pointed out, batting and pitching are the most fertile activities for superstition in baseball; the factors differentiating a home run from a foul ball are so hard to master that players irrationally look for other ways to control the situation. And according to a <A target="_blank" href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/322/5898/115" class="ext">paper</A><SPAN class="ext"></SPAN> in tomorrow's edition of <EM>Science</EM>, skittery jocks may also be more likely to see faces in clouds, construct conspiracy theories, and make <A class="pt-basics-link" title="Psychology Today looks at Bias" href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/bias">biased</A> investment decisions.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainstorm/200810/jock-straps-and-conspiracy-theories">The paper</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainstorm/200810/jock-straps-and-conspiracy-theories">ties together leads from several areas of research into a tight argument</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainstorm/200810/jock-straps-and-conspiracy-theories">lacking control increases illusory pattern perception</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/D7131C4E-3DEC-4A1A-838A-255E5DF29A89/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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