The power of persuasion

The power of persuasion

Context:

• The Indian Constitution is unique in listing, among fundamental duties, the duty of each citizen “to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform” (Article 51A).

“Scientific temper”

•  Jawaharlal Nehru was the first to use the expression “scientific temper”, which he described with his usual lucidity in The Discovery of India

Superstition exists

• India may be unusual in the degree and variety of superstitious practices, even among the educated, but superstition exists everywhere.
• People hesitate to discuss superstitions in public.

Superstitious in India:

•    In India, Practices such as sati.

Why is it so hard to remove superstitions?

• Such beliefs are strengthened by a confirmation bias (giving importance to facts that agree with our preconceptions and ignoring others) and other logical holes.
•  Recent research even shows how seeing the same evidence can simultaneously strengthen oppositely-held beliefs (a phenomenon called Bayesian belief polarisation).

Disagreement in science

•  Scientific theories have limitations.
• Newton’s theories of mechanics and gravitation were superseded by Einstein’s. Einstein’s theory of gravity has no known limitations at the cosmological scale, but is incompatible with quantum mechanics.

Darwinism is a theory to explain how it occurs.

• Today’s version is a combination of Darwin’s original ideas, Mendelian genetics and population biology, with much empirical validation and no known failures.
• For example, epigenetic inheritance is not well understood and remains an active area of research.
• Darwin’s book was after all titled The Origin of Species, and the origin of life would seem beyond its scope.

How then does one eradicate superstition?

• By preaching or legislating against it.
• Awareness campaigns against dangerous superstitions along with better education and scientific outreach may have some impact but will be a slow process.
• The topic of “persuasion” is popular in the psychology, social science and marketing communities.
•  The  first step is to see the matter from the other person’s point of view and acknowledge the validity of their perception, and then bring in its limitations.
• Such a strategy may be more successful than the aggressive campaigns of rationalists such as Richard Dawkins.
• Nevertheless, “harmless” superstitions are likely to remain with humanity forever.