The Impulse to Error

To go along with my list of actual errors I want to also list principles (with sources if at all possible) that commonly lead to errors in reasoning. Very often I run into someone holding a position that has been fully retorted and yet he will not let go. There are countless personal reasons for this and I want to list a few for reference.

• "People’s sense of control influences how they respond to a perceived risk. If they feel their health could be threatened (such as from a car accident while driving), but there are effective ways to protect themselves (such as wearing a seatbelt), then they are more likely to respond to the risk logically. If people don’t have a good way to protect themselves or their loved ones, they are “more likely to respond to the threat less rationally,” says Anthony Dudo, a UT professor who studies science communication and public perceptions. The perceived lack of control ratchets up the perception of the threat, perhaps explaining why flying may seem scarier than driving despite the greater risk of a car accident than a plane crash." - Slate
• "I refuse to sit quietly in the margins and only speak when I can “calmly” educate and teach. I’m fucking angry, y’all, at decades and centuries of dehumanization, and belly dancing is just the tip of it – hate mail be damned." Emotion is not an argument. Salon
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