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Morendil comments on Belief in Belief - Less Wrong
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Belief in disbelief:
— Niels Bohr
(Note: This is often retold with Bohr himself as the one with the horseshoe, but this quote appears to be the authentic one.)
I wonder how common that is, believing that you don't believe something but acting in a way that implies more belief in it than you acknowledge. One other example I experienced recently: For whatever reason, my mom had a homeopathic cold remedy lying around. (I think a friend gave it to her.) She and I both had colds recently, so she suggested I try some of it. The thing is, she gives full assent to my explanations of why homeopathy is both experimentally falsified and physical nonsense; she even appeared to believe me when I looked at the ingredients and dilution factors and determined that the bottle essentially contained water, sugar, and purple food colouring. But even after that, she still said we may as well try it because it couldn't hurt. True, it couldn't hurt... but "it can't hurt" doesn't sound like really understanding that the bottle you're holding consists of water, sugar, and purple.
Another instance may be former theists who still act in some ways as though they believe in God (an interesting mirror image of current theists who don't act as though they really believe what they profess to believe), though in my experience many of them consider it to be bad habit they're trying to break, so I'd be less inclined to call it belief in [dis]belief, I'd take that as something more akin to akrasia.
What's weird about this is that if this theory works, anything forms an acceptable substitute.
So you don't need to buy any actual homeopathic "medication", you can save lots of money by just eating some sugar. (The homeopathic markup on sugar is just unbelievable.)
Even sugar isn't necessary, since you're stipulating that "what works" isn't any particular mechanism of action but just the action of treating yourself. You could as well choose to believe that taking a deep breath three times in succession is a good remedy against the cold (or whatever else ails you).
Tends to work pretty well on my own mental state, but very short term. Complicated (expensive?) impressive rituals help, though.
When I feel the first signs suggesting an incipient cold, I decide THIS IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN, and it nearly always goes away.
So far, I've only been able to make this work for colds, not any other malady.
Must remember to try this.
Which incipient signs do you look for?
A roughness in the throat is usually the first thing I notice. Unchecked, it develops into a cough, sore throat, sneezing, and at the peak a couple of days of being completely unable to function.
This happened about once a year on average before I discovered I could banish them by willpower, since when it's been more like once in five years, generally from extreme circumstances like being caught in the rain on a bike ride without adequate clothing.
Just to chuck in a little more anecdotal evidence, my husband applied this belief in the placebo effect, and so long as he can get an early night, he never suffers the little bugs and headaches.
It works in all instances where homeopathy has worked... ;)
The placebo effect rocks!