Sk-etchbook

I'm thinking of doing my critical studies essay about human perception and misperception. I'm in good stead already to tackle this from physical, psychological, social/cultural directions and could also branch out into the philosophical or metaphysical areas if I feel adventurous.

This however may be a little vague and not related enough to digital media so I decided to develop the idea and move towards discussing the implications of the aforementioned subjects upon modern society. To be more specific generally held beliefs by the masses, the effect of mass media and the information revolution upon these and the lines between education and manipulation.

Another related area would then be the knowledge deficit. Why could the majority of the UK population now know more about the recent events in Coronation Street or the contents of Posh Spice's knickers than about their own brains, bodies or physical environment? Do we now, with all our information and consumables live in a age of ignorance. Are our teaching methods wrong and is this gap new or is it long standing? Do the ones holding the power to change these things behave in selfish and culturally destructive ways?

So many questions. I'll leave it there for now but here is and extract from, http://www.skepdic.com/selfdeception.html there are some interesting facts n figures.

Self-deception is the process or fact of misleading ourselves to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid. Self-deception, in short, is a way we justify false beliefs to ourselves.



Ninety-four percent of university professors think they are better at their jobs than their colleagues.

Twenty-five percent of college students believe they are in the top 1% in terms of their ability to get along with others.

Seventy percent of college students think they are above average in leadership ability. Only two percent think they are below average. --Thomas Gilovich How We Know What Isn't So

Eighty-five percent of medical students think it is improper for politicians to accept gifts from lobbyists. Only 46 percent think it's improper for physicians to accept gifts from drug companies.
--Dr. Ashley Wazana JAMA Vol. 283 No. 3, January 19, 2000

A Princeton University research team asked people to estimate how susceptible they and "the average person" were to a long list of judgmental biases; the majority of people claimed to be less biased than the majority of people.

A 2001 study of medical residents found that 84 percent thought that their colleagues were influenced by gifts from pharmaceutical companies, but only 16 percent thought that they were similarly influenced. --Daniel Gilbert, "I'm OK; you're biased"

People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains....This overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. --"Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments," by Justin Kruger and David Dunning Department of Psychology Cornell University, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology December 1999 Vol. 77, No. 6, 1121-1134.

Our capacity for self-deception has no known limits. -- Michael Novak