Anecdotes and eyewitness testimony

Anybody wanna answer this? Let's see.
Paul is gone.
Bart's probably not around either.
Malf is too busy being hilarious.
Steve001 is a senile dumbshit
Arouet hates me and probably can't read this either...
Linda! Hey Dr. Lovely, can you help me out here?
Your post, brilliant though it is, is a bit general and non-specific, and could only elicit the most general and non specific debunking. An example would be nice... Have you got a scenario in mind?

Otherwise the biggest possible problem with your post is this line:

The second fits nothing we know about human psychology

"Confabulation" fits perfectly with what we know of human psychology.
 
Your post, brilliant though it is, is a bit general and non-specific, and could only elicit the most general and non specific debunking. An example would be nice... Have you got a scenario in mind?

Otherwise the biggest possible problem with your post is this line:

"Confabulation" fits perfectly with what we know of human psychology.

How about this? You might've seen it. I think FormalDRS posted it somewhere. Give it a shot. And UFOs are no longer difficult for people to accept, but as a hypothetical you may substitute whatever you desire for said UFO. Doesn't matter.
We're discussing abnormal psychology (or confabulation, hehe)...

 
Looks like malf wasn't up to the task and bailed. I assumed that'd be the case. There's not really any way to bullshit one's way around these sorts of testimonies. Maybe if they didn't number in the thousands upon thousands, you could write this particular lady off as being delusional or lying, but then as I've stated, that doesn't work when the plurality is taken into consideration. Yep, so is the way it goes. Too bad for malf.

I'm going back to enjoying ghost's comment history.
 
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We should never rely on anecdotes? Well then, I guess that means we should never believe anything anyone says ever. When your friends tell you about a night out, accuse them of remembering it wrong. When you steve tell us some of your daily experiences, we mustn't believe a word. We should also discount any testimony in court because it's clearly wrong, and we can't rely on it. (Although I'll concede here that this aspect needs a lot of improving)
 
How about this? You might've seen it. I think FormalDRS posted it somewhere. Give it a shot. And UFOs are no longer difficult for people to accept, but as a hypothetical you may substitute whatever you desire for said UFO. Doesn't matter.
We're discussing abnormal psychology (or confabulation, hehe)...

I find it possible that there's a cultural aspect involved in UFOs, their acceptance, and people perceiving them. I'm sure there's extraterrestrial life of some kind. The universe is too big for there not to be. However, such things are rarely seen by more than a small group of people at any given time. There haven't been ships hovering over cities in broad daylight, and there hasn't been any formal first contact that anyone could point to. There's enough weird shit related to UFO phenomena to keep me from just disregarding it, but there isn't enough for me to take every person who claims to have seen aliens seriously.
 
We should never rely on anecdotes? Well then, I guess that means we should never believe anything anyone says ever. When your friends tell you about a night out, accuse them of remembering it wrong. When you steve tell us some of your daily experiences, we mustn't believe a word. We should also discount any testimony in court because it's clearly wrong, and we can't rely on it. (Although I'll concede here that this aspect needs a lot of improving)
I never said any of the complaints you are expressing. Read what was said once again.
 
I never said any of the complaints you are expressing. Read what was said once again.

Steve, the title of the thread is called anecdotes and eye witnesses. And in the op you state the following

Here's one example why both should never be used to judge what is the truth

That to my mind is pretty unambiguous. And besides it's not really relevant. Today in western democracies we do not convict by rumour and heresay. And the same with parapsychology. We test for it in the lab because most peoples experiences are likely illusions or delusions.
 
Steve, the title of the thread is called anecdotes and eye witnesses. And in the op you state the following



That to my mind is pretty unambiguous. And besides it's not really relevant. Today in western democracies we do not convict by rumour and heresay. And the same with parapsychology. We test for it in the lab because most peoples experiences are likely illusions or delusions.
I know what I said. And you are right in all you wrote above. However, on the many forums just like this one, anecdote is considered reliable enough for many people especially if the anecdote affirms something already excepted as being true.Excepting an anecdote or eyewitness testimony can at times be accurate, but as the video shows that ain't necessarily true.
 
I know what I said. And you are right in all you wrote above. However, on the many forums just like this one, anecdote is considered reliable enough for many people especially if the anecdote affirms something already excepted as being true.Excepting an anecdote or eyewitness testimony can at times be accurate, but as the video shows that ain't necessarily true.

You believe eyewitness testimony is accurate only when it fits your accepted idea of how reality operates. It must be nice to be trapped in such a comforting belief system. Uncertainty can drive people neurotic.
 
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I know what I said. And you are right in all you wrote above. However, on the many forums just like this one, anecdote is considered reliable enough for many people especially if the anecdote affirms something already excepted as being true.Excepting an anecdote or eyewitness testimony can at times be accurate, but as the video shows that ain't necessarily true.

Are you senile? Serious question.
 
Given that at least some reports aren't "genuine" (I think we all agree on that), what is the exact number of reports we should expect from from fruitloops, hayseeds, drunks, drugged, fantasists, self-publicists, delusionals, confabulators and the downright mistaken?

Until we know that exact number, we don't know if we have had more than that, do we?
 
Given that at least some reports aren't "genuine" (I think we all agree on that), what is the exact number of reports we should expect from from fruitloops, hayseeds, drunks, drugged, fantasists, self-publicists, delusionals, confabulators and the downright mistaken?

Until we know that exact number, we don't know if we have had more than that, do we?

Regarding UFOs?

While those traits might affect an individual's perception and reporting, they do not affect groups of tens or hundreds of people collectively.

That said, there are groups of people in certain professions where routine hallucination and drunkenness is a bit frowned upon. They even have to test negative for such things, and these happen to be the jobs out of which many of the more well-known UFO cases are documented: military, law enforcement & pilots

Nobody familiar with the literature (who isn't a publicist) doubts their existence. That is, unidentified objects that fit no prosaic explanation (similar to the video above). Not talking about ET, though many witnesses come away with that impression.

I'm still willing to accept an unknown delusional disorder that causes groups of people to see the same strange things in the sky at the same time, and also causes military radars to pick up anomalous objects at the same time and location. But that also gets us into psi...
 
Regarding UFOs?

While those traits might affect an individual's perception and reporting, they do not affect groups of tens or hundreds of people collectively.

That said, there are groups of people in certain professions where routine hallucination and drunkenness is a bit frowned upon. They even have to test negative for such things, and these happen to be the jobs out of which many of the more well-known UFO cases are documented: military, law enforcement & pilots

Nobody familiar with the literature (who isn't a publicist) doubts their existence. That is, unidentified objects that fit no prosaic explanation (similar to the video above). Not talking about ET, though many witnesses come away with that impression.

I'm still willing to accept an unknown delusional disorder that causes groups of people to see the same strange things in the sky at the same time, and also causes military radars to pick up anomalous objects at the same time and location. But that also gets us into psi...

Bearing al that in mind, the case you put forward wasn't very germane, was it? ;)
 
Bearing al that in mind, the case you put forward wasn't very germane, was it? ;)

An encounter with Nordic aliens from the Pleiades? I don't know. Seems reasonable.

couplenordics.jpg.w300h225.jpg
 
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How about this? You might've seen it. I think FormalDRS posted it somewhere. Give it a shot. And UFOs are no longer difficult for people to accept, but as a hypothetical you may substitute whatever you desire for said UFO. Doesn't matter.
We're discussing abnormal psychology (or confabulation, hehe)...

Is that Linda ?
 
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