How Rational Are You?

SafeSurfer

I saw an interesting experiment where members of a Rational and Skeptics association were in a room and asked about how rational they felt they were.
They all completely dismissed sentimentality,superstition,karma etc etc.

Then they presented them with a photograph of a relative or friend and asked them to stab it.

None of the participants were willing to stab the photo even though rationally they knew that it was just ink and paper and no one would be harmed.

If I was to suggest that something bad would happen to anybody who thanked this post?

Would you thank it?
Would you ignore it?

Its easy to ignore chain letters because you just ignore them. But if you had to actually opt in to act rationally, like the people with the photograph could you do it?

(Or would you thank the first comment as alternative?)

cherryghost

I thanked you, I like to live on the edge.



And yes. I feel I'm pretty rational.

bgrizzley

No bother thanking you. Still don't think I'd stab a loved ones picture...

SafeSurfer

I don't think I could stab photos of people I don't know, never mind people I love.

But I consider myself rational.

Chevolution

I like to think I'm pretty rational

But I also seem to be quite superstitious

Some serious cognitive dissonance going on there!

ColeTrain

SafeSurfer wrote: »

None of the participants were willing to stab the photo even though rationally they knew that it was just ink and paper and no one would be harmed.

Maybe they didn't want to stab the picture because it was just a stupid thing to do?

caste_in_exile

What's your perceived reality?

OneArt

What's wrong with them stabbing pictures is a great fun. And so is doll making. And chanting, and buying pins...

Johro

I didn't thank your post because I don't want to add to your thanks count, but I'll thank it here to show I ain't scared.

Where To

I wouldn't stab a picture either.

In case it would blunt the knife that I use for stabbing irrational people.

kowloon

I'm sure I don't notice most of my irrational tendencies. So I, like most people, think I'm seeing everything clearly in the majority of circumstances.

MistyCheese

SafeSurfer wrote: »

How rational are you?

Banana.

Wacker The Attacker

I like cake

Pherekydes

Stab this post to prove you are rational.





Yep, works fine.

caste_in_exile

My rationale, will always strike mere mortals as irrational

Rigol

Could it be that they just thought it was disrespectful.

I mean if I, in full view of you, jizz on a pic of your ....well ...i wont get personal ...but you see where this is going.

You might get angry in that situation. Even though in rational thought its just a picture.
The thing about rationality is that it can be relative to your morals/desires in this life.

SafeSurfer

Rigol wrote: »

Could it be that they just thought it was disrespectful.

I mean if I in full view of you if jizz on a pic of your ....well ...i wont get personal ...but you see where this is going

Tell me more....

Jesus Wept

Is sentimentality irrational? I wouldn't put it in the same bracket as superstition and karma. I find karma an ridiculous and offensive concept tbh.

Johro

Wacker The Attacker wrote: »

I like cake

Cake ftw.

caste_in_exile

SafeSurfer wrote: »

they presented them with a photograph of a relative or friend and asked them to stab it.

None of the participants were willing to stab the photo

monkey see / monkey do.

cha cha cha / cha cha cha

Johro

Andy Carroll wrote: »

Is sentimentality irrational? I wouldn't put it in the same bracket as superstition and karma. I find karma an ridiculous and offensive concept tbh.

Oooooohhh... I wouldn't like to be you..

Sofaspud

Rigol wrote: »

Could it be that they just thought it was disrespectful.

This, I have no shred of superstition in me but wouldn't like to stab a picture of a loved one simply because it's disrespectful to the person.

Even as a kid, when somebody didn't believe me about something and told me to "swear on my ma's life", which is infallible as a kid, I'd refuse because it's disrespectful. Nothing to do with a bizarre voodoo-doll type belief.

eth0

Rational enough to know anyone who feels the need to join a 'Rational and Skeptics' association is a feckin eejit.

Chuck Stone

Let's try to break this down a little shall we?

The image is of a loved one so, naturally, you're going to think about the loved one when you view it. So someone asks you to stab the image of your loved one. The act of 'stabbing' the image is going to feel uncomfortable because it's probably going to make you imagine physically stabbing your loved one which is, no doubt, disturbing.

With that in mind couldn't we equally ask what exactly is irrational about avoiding the uncomfortable feelings stabbing an image of your loved one might engender? Surely not wanting to stab the image of a loved one is more 'rational' than happily doing it without a second thought?

beks101

Pretty rational when it comes to other people's problems.

An emotional car crash when it comes to my own.

im invisible

I'd turn the picture over and stab them in the back.

flutterflye

Yeah, it really doesn't go into the same bracket for me either.

You have religion, superstition, karma, homeopathy, chain mail and so on - they are all the same silly nonsense.

But then you have stabbing a photo of a loved one.
You aren't thinking "oh I'm not going to stab that picture because something bad will happen", it's more just as someone already said, that you're thinking of that person while doing the stabbing, and it just doesn't feel right.
I'm sure if I had to do it, I would, but it would feel uncomfortable.

Sorcha16

Blatant thanks whoring -I guess that makes me a sceptic!

Senna

But is it rational to stab a piece of paper just because some stranger asks you to?

Sorcha16

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Surely not wanting to stab the image of a loved one is more 'rational' than happily doing it without a second thought?

Surely, a rational person would realise no harm would come of it and could do so if asked, so why not?

Scruffles

very interesting post OP,especialy for AH at night.
it is amazing to see rational people hold such dedication over a throwaway piece of paper, though am not understanding the last half/the question on thanks [own difficulty/problem].

a picture is just a picture but people mentaly attach a lot of stuff to it.

if it was a picture-the only one that had,woud not cut it up purely due to memory having been destroyed and using photos to remember moments,if it was one that had various copies woud have no problem doing so for an experiement,however itd make more sense to use recycled paper and perhaps cartridges that produce less ink for a big experiment like that.

Stroll

Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of my mind.

Chuck Stone

Sorcha16 wrote: »

Surely, a rational person would realise no harm would come of it and could do so if asked, so why not?

Yes but it may not be the notion that harm will come to his loved one so much as doing it would be disturbing emotionally.





And don't call me Shirley.

caste_in_exile

Where the rationale in even convening to do something like that

I'll do it I my own time, thanks in a genuine moment of pure unbridled irrationalititty

Davidius

Did you know that the number of rational numbers is in a sense smaller than the number of irrational numbers? That is the cardinality of the irrational numbers is a greater order of infinity than the cardinality of the rational numbers. However both sets are dense in R, this means that given any real number x you can find a rational number within any positive distance of x, and similarly an irrational number. Also worthy of note is that a somewhat 'natural' measure of these subsets of the real numbers shows that the rationals are measure 0 in any given subinterval of the reals.

Clearly what this means is that reality is made up both the rational and irrational but that the irrational composes an infinitely greater part of reality. However we also find that the rational and irrational border each other. Limiting yourself only to rationality will close your mind to the larger reality and ghosts are real. If this paragraph sounds sensible to you then congratulations on being irrational and crazy.

Stroll

Davidius wrote: »

Did you know that the number of rational numbers is in a sense smaller than the number of irrational numbers? That is the cardinality of the irrational numbers is a greater order of infinity than the cardinality of the rational numbers. However both sets are dense in R, this means that given any real number x you can find a rational number within any positive distance of x, and similarly an irrational number. Also worthy of note is that a somewhat 'natural' measure of these subsets of the real numbers shows that the rationals are measure 0 in any given subinterval of the reals.

Clearly what this means is that reality is made up both the rational and irrational but that the irrational composes an infinitely greater part of reality. However we also find that the rational and irrational border each other. Limiting yourself only to rationality will close your mind to the larger reality and ghosts are real. If this paragraph sounds sensible to you then congratulations on being irrational and crazy.

Yeah...

I'd do it.. Why not.

biko

I'd probably do it because I'm an emo kid

My life is spiraling downward
I couldn't get enough money to go to the Blood Red Romance and Suffocate Me Dry concert
It sucks cause they play some of my favorite songs like "Stab my heart because I love you" and "Rip apart my soul" and of course "Stabby rip stab stab"

UCDVet

SafeSurfer wrote: »

I saw an interesting experiment where members of a Rational and Skeptics association were in a room and asked about how rational they felt they were.
They all completely dismissed sentimentality,superstition,karma etc etc.

Then they presented them with a photograph of a relative or friend and asked them to stab it.

None of the participants were willing to stab the photo even though rationally they knew that it was just ink and paper and no one would be harmed.

If I was to suggest that something bad would happen to anybody who thanked this post?

Would you thank it?
Would you ignore it?

Its easy to ignore chain letters because you just ignore them. But if you had to actually opt in to act rationally, like the people with the photograph could you do it?

(Or would you thank the first comment as alternative?)

I consider myself fairly rational.

I know that saying 'FU#* YOU' wouldn't hurt you in any way. But I also know that I'm part of a society and culture that *isn't* perfectly rational. I also know that even rational people are irrational at times, particularly when emotions are involved.

Stabbing a picture of someone would be viewed as incredibly offensive to many people; even if it does not directly harm them.

I would decline stabbing a picture of a family member, not because it would physically hurt them, but because it's out of place in our society. For the same reason I can say that, rationally, there is absolutely nothing with human sexuality, but I'll still refrain from having sex with my wife in public.

As members of society it *is* often rational to conform to social norms.

rubadub

SafeSurfer wrote: »

Then they presented them with a photograph of a relative or friend and asked them to stab it.

None of the participants were willing to stab the photo even though rationally they knew that it was just ink and paper and no one would be harmed.

Any links to give further info? did they give reasons they would not do it. I would not take an unnecessary risk for no reason, i.e. handling a knife or whatever it is, you say nobody would be harmed, I could be harmed if the knife broke or slipped.

Where did they get the photos too? smells fishy TBH.

philologos

OP: have you ever thought that people wouldn't stab a picture because it seems really silly? Surely doing things without justification is irrational?

UCDVet

philologos wrote: »

OP: have you ever thought that people wouldn't stab a picture because it seems really silly? Surely doing things without justification is irrational?

Presumably they'd have them stab pictures of strangers as a baseline.

Gbear

philologos wrote: »

OP: have you ever thought that people wouldn't stab a picture because it seems really silly? Surely doing things without justification is irrational?

It's more arational really. Irrational would be going around randomly stabbing pictures. There is no sense in stabbing a picture but unless it was the only copy of it there's nothing irrational about doing it either.





Jaysus. I spent far too much time coming up with a reply in a thread about stabbing pictures.:o

summerskin

None of us are rational. Read "thinking, fast and slow" by Daniel kahnemann for proof.

philologos

Stabbing a picture without justification is silly. Anything without a good reason for doing it is by definition irrational as far as I can tell.

Gbear

philologos wrote: »

Stabbing a picture without justification is silly. Anything without a good reason for doing it is by definition irrational as far as I can tell.

I don't think it's that simple.

You could just as easily argue that "Anything without a good reason for not doing it is rational". There's no good reason to not stab a picture. But saying that stabbing a picture is a rational thing doesn't really make any sense.

I don't think picture stabbing is even on the irrational/rational spectrum unless there's another factor - it's someone else's picture, it's the only copy of that picture you have, stabbing it is dangerous and you might cut yourself, etc..

philologos

All behaviour and thought falls on the rationality spectrum. If it didn't people would be fantastically selective about what they believe to be irrational. If rationality is objective and not subjective then it is what it is irrespective of opinion.

jester77

I would consider myself rational, but there are times when you just have to leave rational outside the door for sake of peace of mind, especially when it comes to wives, in-laws and parents.

Ficheall

Davidius wrote: »

However we also find that the rational and irrational border each other.

The probability of an irrational number being bordered by a rational number is surely zero, no?


And how much are we being offered to stab this picture?

Pherekydes

Ficheall wrote: »

The probability of an irrational number being bordered by a rational number is surely zero, no?

That would mean that only irrational numbers could border irrational numbers. Where would the rational numbers go?

Ficheall

Pherekydes wrote: »

That would mean that only irrational numbers could border irrational numbers. Where would the rational numbers go?

They go between two irrationals, aye.
The probability of an irrational bordering a rational is effectively zero though.
Probability at the infinite level is a dick.