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Chapter 16 - How Intuitive Beliefs Inoculate Us against Scientific Ones

from Science and Race

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2022

By
Andrew Shtulman
Edited by
Julien Musolino ,
Joseph Sommer  and
Pernille Hemmer
Julien Musolino
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Joseph Sommer
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Pernille Hemmer
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
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Summary

Scientific ideas are difficult to teach, difficult to learn, and difficult to accept as true because they contradict our intuitive theories of the world, constructed in childhood but retained across the lifespan, influencing our thinking even as adults. In this chapter, I discuss what intuitive theories are, where they come from, and why they blind us to more accurate theories of the world. I explore two case studies – projectile motion and evolutionary adaptation – to illustrate how intuitive theories are historically entrenched, culturally widespread, resistant to counterevidence, maladaptive for behavior, and seemingly inerasable. I conclude by considering the impact of intuitive theories on human belief and behavior more generally.

Keywords

intuitive theoriesbelief formationconceptual developmentfolk biologyfolk physicsscience education
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cognitive Science of Belief
A Multidisciplinary Approach
 , pp. 353 - 373
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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