Many Americans believe in ridiculous things. Here's our show:
CLIMATE CATASTROPHE VS. CLIMATE CHANGE: Most people think global warming is a big problem. Secretary of State John Kerry said, "It's warning us. It's compelling us to act. When 97 percent of all scientists agree on anything, we need to listen."
But "The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels" author Alex Epstein explains that there's a big difference between climate change and climate catastrophe. Even if we have made the world warmer, climate change deaths are at a record low. Fossil fuels save lives.
BLINDLY TRUSTING AUTHORITY: In social contexts, people often ignore reason. When in a room of shills who all purposely give the wrong answer, people actually change their answer just because of what others say.
LOOK-ISM? We hear about people being racially biased or sexist, but looks? At ABC, I sent pairs of actors out to apply for the same job with the exact same resume and clothing. The difference was: one was especially good-looking. The other was not. The good-looking people did much better.
RAISE THE WAGE! Higher minimum wage sounds reasonable to most Americans, but it makes no economic sense, and hurts some poor people.
REASON: Twenty years ago, I wasn't so rational. When neither liberal nor conservative publications made much sense to me, I discovered the libertarian magazine "Reason," which is skeptical of both the left and right. Reason editors Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch (host of "The Independents") say libertarians are more rational than others.
MY TAKE: Over a third of Americans believe in ghosts. Just as many people believe in astrology. But dozens of studies have debunked astrology! Astrologists tell people things that apply to everyone, and people also have something called confirmation bias: we tend to focus on the things that are true, but forget the dozens of misses. Astrology is fun, but reason is better.
