The Unpersuadables: Adventures with the Enemies of Science (55 page)

308
my transcript for the chapter is in excess of twenty-eight thousand words:
The exact number is 28,321. I rounded it down for neatness.

309
‘a clear and future danger’:
Deborah E. Lipstadt,
History on Trial
, Harper Perennial, 2005, p. 25.

312
anthropologist Daniel Everett has studied the Pirahã:
John Colapinto, ‘The Interpreter’,
New Yorker
, 16 April 2007; Rafaela von Bredow, ‘Brazil’s Pirahã Tribe Living without Numbers or Time’,
Der Spiegel
, 3 May 2006.

312
A 2012 study, reported in
The Economist
:
‘Older and wiser?’,
The Economist
, 7 August 2012.

313
‘In the inner world of the depressive self’:
Lewis Wolpert,
Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast
, Faber, 2007, p. 107.

Abduction (Mack)
28

Abraham
3

Abraham, John
204

Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq
70

Adam
2
,
3
,
5
,
12
,
26

Africa
73
,
74
,
115

afterlife
21

AIDS
213

‘cures’ for
36
,
38
,
115

see also
HIV

alcohol

abuse
66
,
120
,
165

cultural determinants of the effects of
83
–
84

aliens
22
–
30
,
50
–
51
,
58

abductions
23
–
24
,
28
,
51
,
102
–
103
,
170
,
182

see also
UFOs

American Spectator
(magazine)
213

amputees
82

anger, and belief
25
,
30

animals

identification with
186

psychic
258
–
60
,
263
,
265
,
266
,
271
–
72

Anmatyerr people
299

Annan, Kofi
32

anonymity
69
,
70

Antas, Jaenelle
219
,
222
,
224
,
227
–
29
,
234
–
35
,
237
–
38
,
240
,
242
–
43
,
248
,
253

anti-God rhetoric
4
,
9

anti-homeopaths
95
–
96

anti-psychiatry
155

anti-psychotics
128
,
145
,
149
,
152
,
155
,
182
,
191

anti-Semitism
221
,
229
,
248
,
252

anxiety
42
–
43
,
45
,
128
,
187
,
197

Aphrodite
302

appearance, overestimation of our
110
,
242
, 379

archetypes
302

Aristotle
218
,
303

Aronson, Elliot
84
,
88
,
194
,
243

art
300

Arthur, King
302

asanas
32

Asch, Solomon
71

Asimov, Isaac
271

atheists

celebrity
9
–
10

scientist
211

Atkins, Peter
259

Attenborough, David
2
,
5
,
6

Auschwitz
225
,
230

Auschwitz-Birkenau
229

Australian Aboriginal people
300
–
301
,
313

Australian Central Desert
299
,
313

Australian Museum
19

authority, excessive obedience to
70
–
72
,
84

autobiographical memory, rewriting of
194

babies
75
,
183

Balrishna, Acharya
35

banking, deregulation
214

Baumeister, Roy
89
,
307
–
308

BBC
see
British Broadcasting Corporation

Bechara, Antoine
187

Beecher, Lt-Col. Henry
41

behavioural patterns, release of
44

‘being stared at’, sense of
255
,
258
,
262
,
265
,
276

beliefs

coherent
218

core
183

and facts
201

faulty
84
,
142
,
182
,
218

forcing onto others
311

of others
50
–
51

religious
197

simplified nature of
133

Benedetti, Fabrizio
42

Bentall, Richard
145
–
48
,
155
–
57
,
180
,
310
,
313

Benveniste, Jacques
110
–
12
,
115

Beowulf
302

Berns, Gregory
71
–
2

Bible
2
,
3
,
4
,
11
,
12
,
13
,
14
,
15
,
16
,
25

Condemnation of homosexuality
14
–
15
,
18

Dragons of
13

Genesis
3
–
4
,
13

Binary Judgments,
133
–
34
,
309

Blair, Tony
94

Blind spots
79
,
82

Blindness
82

Blizzard, Pam
289

Bloom, Paul
304

Blue Mountains
52
,
64

Bortolotti, Lisa
182

brain
42
,
70
–
92
,
101
–
103

and confabulation
189
–
96

development
73

experience expectant’ nature
205

faulty beliefs of
84
–
91

information processing capacity
79

left/right hemispheres of
190
–
92

mental models of
76
,
85
–
86
,
102
,
147
–
48
,
183
,
185
–
86
,
316

and the mind
303
–
304

organic abnormalities of schizophrenia

prefrontal cortex
73

size
75

and storytelling
188
–
89
,
191
–
92
,
305
–
307

tumours in
92
–
93
,
116

breath control (‘Pranayama’)
32
–
26
,
38
,
40
–
41
,
45
,
56
,
134
,
196

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
95

British Centre for Science Education
5

British Empire
209
–
210
,
249
,
250
,
252
–
53
,
309

British False Memory Society
170
,
173

British Homeopathic Association
109

British Journal of Psychiatry
145

Browne, Sylvia
290

Bruner, Jerome
ix
,
303

Buddha
52

Buddhist meditation
52
–
62
,
182

Buddhists
65
,
70
,
182

Bulger killings
171

Bush, George W.
87

Butler, Rab
232

Cambridge Union
210

Campbell, Joseph
303

cancer
93

‘cures’ for
33
,
35
,
38
–
39
,
116
,
181
,
242
,
310

Cancer Act 1939
116

cannibalism
175

Cannon, Dolores
44

Capitalism
213
,
217

Capolingua, Rosanna
39
–
40

carbon-dioxide levels
204

Carroll, Lewis
201

Carson, Rachel
211

Catholics
21

cause and effect
184
–
187
,
189
,
196
,
206
,
302
,
304

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
118
–
119
,
124
,
135

certainty

human need for
132
–
34
,
197
,
252

rejection of
268

change
306

Charles E. Holman Foundation
118

chemotherapy
35
,
93

Chibnall, Albert
256
,
257

chick-sexers
186
–
87

childhood abuse
165
–
72
,
173
–
75
,
176
–
78
,
179

sexual
145
,
146
,
156
–
57
,
162
,
180

children
75

China
83

Christ Church, Oxford
200
,
201

Christians
4
,
6
,
7
,
133
,
134

condemnation of homosexuality
14
–
15
,
18

morality
15
–
16
,
122

see also
creationists

Churchill, Winston
208
,
235
,
249
,
250

Clancy, Susan
50

climate-change sceptics
200
,
203
–
204
,
216

Clinic for Dissociative Studies
171

Clinton, Hilary
118

Coan, Chris
166
–
67

Coan, Jim
166
–
67

cochlear implants
78

cognitive bias
85
,
87
–
88
,
90
–
91
,
103
–
104
,
111
,
183
,
186
,
244
,
272

see also
confirmation bias

cognitive dissonance
84
–
87
,
96
,
102
,
181

coin toss tests
262

Colapinto, John
312

cold war
149
,
212
,
215

Coleman, Ron
136
–
37
,
141
,
146
,
148
,
157
,
162
,
186
,
306

colour, perception of
80

Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP)
275

Communists
212
,
222
,
249
–
50

con artists
107

concentration camps
220
–
21
,
224
,
230
,
245

confabulation
189
–
90
,
192
–
96
,
203
,
207
,
218
,
253
,
307
,
315

confirmation bias
85
,
87
,
96
,
181
,
182
,
188
,
221
,
243
,
246
,
312

consciousness
267
–
68

as Hero-Maker
306

conviction, unconscious
33

Conway, Martin
201

Cooper, Alice
275

Copenhagen Climate Conference
204

Copenhagen Treaty 2009
216

core beliefs
183

cows, sacred
40

Creation Research
5

Creation Science Foundation
12

creationists
2
–
10
,
13
–
19
,
20
,
26
,
30
,
100
,
162
,
261
,
308
,
310

Crick, Francis
258
,
268

CSICOP
see
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal

culture, power of
211
,
302

‘culture heroes’
311

‘culture wars’
30
,
309

Daily Mail
(newspaper)
225
,
228
,
232

Daily Telegraph
(newspaper)
243
–
44
,
263

Dali, Salvador
275

Darwin, Charles
2
,
10
,
11
,
94

Davenas, Elisabeth
110
–
11