There are contexts where humans can take evidence and unconsciously process it to get good results. However, most of those contexts are contexts where they are taking their experience and applying it to individual cases. One example in that book which sort of fits with this is doctors diagnosing heart attacks.
This is a very different circumstance then having people take in a wide variety of different sorts of data and to come up with a set of rules that actually explain it. Empirically, humans are overactive pattern seekers with confirmation bias issues. Thus, one sees all sorts of superstitions crop up. Moreover, empirically, folk genetics has generally been awful, arguably even worse than folk psychology. For example, look at how many cultures believed that what a female was thinking or looking at would influence the offspring. (This one dates at least to Biblical times judging from the story of Jacob.) Similarly, many cultures have believed that once a female mated with a given male, all her later offspring could potentially inherit properties from that male.
For example, look at how many cultures believed that what a female was thinking or looking at would influence the offspring.
Well, as Konkvistador pointed out, what happens to a pregnant woman does influence the offspring. As for what she was thinking or looking at, especially if it caused her to be flooded with adrenaline or other hormones, that it could effect the baby certainly doesn’t strike me as absurd. (Do you know of any research in this area?)
Sure, that sort of effect could maybe occur. But the versions in classical cultures aren’t that. For example, the referenced example in Genesis has Jacob apparently using speckled sticks to make the the offspring of the cattle become speckled. Similarly, some cultures believed that if a woman was thinking of another man when she conceived the child then the child would be more likely to look like the other man.
Similarly, some cultures believed that if a woman was thinking of another man when she conceived the child then the child would be more likely to look like the other man.
That almost sounds like the type of “polite fiction” that developed to avoid dealing with the consequences of embarrassing affairs.
There are contexts where humans can take evidence and unconsciously process it to get good results. However, most of those contexts are contexts where they are taking their experience and applying it to individual cases. One example in that book which sort of fits with this is doctors diagnosing heart attacks.
This is a very different circumstance then having people take in a wide variety of different sorts of data and to come up with a set of rules that actually explain it. Empirically, humans are overactive pattern seekers with confirmation bias issues. Thus, one sees all sorts of superstitions crop up. Moreover, empirically, folk genetics has generally been awful, arguably even worse than folk psychology. For example, look at how many cultures believed that what a female was thinking or looking at would influence the offspring. (This one dates at least to Biblical times judging from the story of Jacob.) Similarly, many cultures have believed that once a female mated with a given male, all her later offspring could potentially inherit properties from that male.
Well, as Konkvistador pointed out, what happens to a pregnant woman does influence the offspring. As for what she was thinking or looking at, especially if it caused her to be flooded with adrenaline or other hormones, that it could effect the baby certainly doesn’t strike me as absurd. (Do you know of any research in this area?)
Sure, that sort of effect could maybe occur. But the versions in classical cultures aren’t that. For example, the referenced example in Genesis has Jacob apparently using speckled sticks to make the the offspring of the cattle become speckled. Similarly, some cultures believed that if a woman was thinking of another man when she conceived the child then the child would be more likely to look like the other man.
That almost sounds like the type of “polite fiction” that developed to avoid dealing with the consequences of embarrassing affairs.