Thread: The danger of what you learn first.

On a semi-related topic, the mind is superstitious. For example if you met lots of men who had beards, and they happened to be alcoholics, you may associate beards with alcoholism.

I just find it terribly sad the way the mind works.

That's called association.

It's a survival thing.

Originally Posted by Seismosaur

That's called association.

It's a survival thing.

More than one word can cover the same category....

Yes, it is a survival thing, like I noted at the end of my OP.

I'm not questioning it's existence or where it comes from, I'm simply saying that it is sad that it is there. And that it is important to note when dealing with conclusions.


This would be an example of what I stated in the OP. I said something, and you say it is something else merely because you have that in your mind first. Superstition - association.

Superstition is a more appropriate word however, because it is unreasonable to believe that men with beards have a drinking problem, while a scenario more worthy of association might be that men with beards scratch themselves often.

I guess.

Depends on how you define "Superstitious"-- Beleiving in bad luck, etc. Is the first thing that comes to mind for it.

See? More examples of association

Heh exactly association and superstition can go hand in hand.

Like for example...

There was an experiment with birds...well I wont get into the full details but he made an "association" which was "superstitious."

First there actually was an action that allowed food to drop (pressing a specific button out of the choice of three buttons).
Then they turned of the buttons and made it random drops of food.
The bird looked over his shoulder and then food came out. Then he looked over his should and food came out again, so the bird continued to look over his shoulder.

He had made an association between looking over his should and food coming out, however the superstition was the belief that when he looked over his shoulder food would come.

Ah I see.

Yes that makes sense.

I don't think disadvantage is the right word, since most people pretty much get an equal portion of useful knowledge and useless knowledge, on the average. I'd say the disadvantage comes when someone doesn't learn how to sort them out.