Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable

"The differences you get across cultures is a fascinating topic in its own right. In the United States, because of the role of the Christian right, belief in the existence of demons and Satan is higher among Republicans than Democrats. Those kinds of beliefs have huge implications for women’s rights and all kinds of other issues. It is important to try and figure out where they’re coming from and what we can do about it. It covers some of the same topics as the other books but in greater depth. One very effective demonstration Bruce Hood does in talks is that he’ll hold up a cardigan and say, ‘I guarantee this cardigan is clean. If I pay you 10 pounds, who will wear it?’ And a lot of hands go up. Then he adds, ‘I should mention that it belonged to Fred West, the notorious serial killer .’ And a lot of the hands go back down again. Now, what’s that about? We’ve got this notion that there’s some kind of essence of evil. It’s a contagion that you could catch. It’s a nice illustration that we’ve all got this irrationality. For skeptics in particular, we sometimes like to think, ‘No, we’re not irrational: all of our decisions are based on solid evidence.’ But I’ve got daughters and granddaughters, and if they ever give me a little trinket, I will be quite upset if I lose it. It’s got no monetary value, but it means a lot to me because it’s got emotional significance. We’ve all got that side to us, and I don’t think we should deny it. We should recognize it and celebrate it. But maybe, when we’re making really important decisions in our lives, we should put it to one side and use the best evidence and reasoning available. It’s these cognitive biases again. A lot of them link back to our evolutionary history, I would say. The one that links to belief in ghosts, spirits and gods is sometimes called the ‘intentionality bias.’ The basic idea is that when something happens in the world around us, it happens because someone or something made it happen. Whatever that being is, it’s got intentions towards us. That seems to be our default, even if we can override it and realize that, actually, that noise is just the wind blowing the door closed. But we seem to have that bias there and you can see why it would play into things like belief in conspiracies, for example. Nothing happens by accident, according to conspiracy theorists, everything is planned, there’s always an intention behind it. It’s almost as if we—or conspiracy theorists—prefer the idea that at least somebody’s in control, rather than that we live in a world where random things just come out of the blue. That relates to another aspect of psychology that’s often brought up in these books and that’s the ‘locus of control.’ As a personality dimension, we all have a preferred point on the locus of control spectrum. You can either have an internal locus of control, which would mean that you’re the kind of person who thinks that your own actions and decisions are responsible, by and large, for the way your life is. Or you could have an external locus of control, where you’re basically a victim: things happen to you that are beyond your control."