Urban Legends: Why do you believe them?

I'd like to explore the concept of urban legends from two perspectives, one scientific and one not so scientific. Let me begin with the non-scientific.

When we discuss urban legends, we often turn our attention to the source of the information. Legends have been described as a form of story-telling, or information that is written or verbally communicated, to advance a particular agenda or belief system. Obviously, the impact of these stories can be harmful or helpful to individuals or society depending on how this information is received or interpreted. A case in point was Michael Shermer's video about the "baloney detection kit" which was both humorous and interesting , however,much to my chagrin, I discovered that the video was funded by The Richard Dawkins Foundation. Dawkin's, a British ethologist(born, 26 March, 1941) is a protagonist of memetics, which has its foundation in the "gene centered" view of evolution. It was therefore no surprise that during the video, Shermer spoke about evolution in a matter of fact fashion, and repeated several times that " science is the best tool ever devised to understand the world." His comments don't suggest to me that he would consider tools other than science to explain the world, therefore, you would have to conclude that if it can't be proven scientifically, whatever you saying or doing is probably not true. Since I now know his bias, I'm now pretty skeptical about him , Skeptic magazine, and the baloney detection kit!

While I was a bit disappointed to find out about the connection between Dawkins and the video because of its lack of objectively, I don't think it was deliberately deceptive. However, in some instances urban legends or stories are created to deliberately deceive those who read or hear them. Where information comes from, and the credibility we assign to these sources, usually gives us confidence that what was said and reported is true. Have urban legends ever began in "The Wall Street Journal?" Since the WSJ is perceived to be a credible financial source, one would assume that the contents are true, and while I don't have any evidence that they have deliberately wrote an article designed to deceive its readers, my own personal bias would would not rule it out. Even though most us are aware that some urban legends are probably not true,why do we fall prey to them?Are we convinced what they say is true? What role do feelings and emotions play?

Do people who create urban legends believe what they write? Do they write with such a degree of certainty, that they believe what they've written cannot be wrong? I chose to explore this question scientifically, which led me to read renowned author and neuroscientist,Robert A Burton's book entitled; On Being Certain.. Believing that you are right even you're not.

Dr, Burton deals with the biology of the brain and the "feeling of knowing". His approach attempts to "dispel the myth of knowing what we know by conscious deliberation is in fact affected by everything from genetic predispositions, to perceptual illusions common to all bodily sensations." This could explain why when we read some of these urban legends and buy into them, we do this not just because of the source of the information, but also because we are so entrenched in what we believe we know about the subject. Dr Burton's thesis about our absolute unshakable belief in what we think we know, is in contrast to the cognitive dissonance theory which leads to "selective perception," a theory put forward by social psychologist, Leon Festinger (1919-1989). Cognitive dissonance is the uncomfortable feeling that's caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. My belief is that we subscribe to urban legends or not, either because of the certainty and the "feeling of knowing" what we believe, or we refuse to be effected by urban legends or stories, because it doesn't agree with our current beliefs. While the source of urban legends is important, feelings, emotions and our belief systems play an even larger role in how we view these stories. Whether you keep out what you don't agree with, or you allow your belief systems to have free reign, you should be aware of what you take in and how it affects you, no matter the source of the information.