Pseudo-psychological beliefs that psychologists can read others’ minds impede accurate understanding of psychology. This study examined whether trick exposure of mental magic reduces pseudo-psychological beliefs and spills over into other unsubstantiated beliefs, such as paranormal and conspiracy beliefs. In Study 1, 88 students watched a mental-magic performance, after which we debunked the misunderstandings about psychology and exposed the trick. The results showed a decrease in pseudo-psychological beliefs and spillover into other unsubstantiated beliefs. In Study 2, 432 crowd workers participated in an online experiment with three conditions: trick exposure, no-trick exposure, and no-performance. Under all three conditions, the misunderstandings about psychology were explained. The decreasing trend emerged for all beliefs regardless of manipulation and persisted at the four-week follow-up for all beliefs except for conspiracy beliefs. The trend was particularly pronounced for pseudo-psychology beliefs in the trick exposure condition. The study’s contribution to effectively correcting misinformation is discussed.
Background and Objectives: Between 2019 and 2023, Thailand witnessed waves of student- and youth-led protest movements. Although these young people are part of a new generation raised with scientific knowledge and technological advancements, many have chosen to incorporate supernatural beliefs and rituals—referred to as “ilmu teluh”—into their political activism, for example, the emergence of the “Ratsadon-muteluh”, a group which incorporates beliefs and rituals as a form of political expression. Methods: This research studies the social phenomenon of superstitious belief and ritual practice among youth protesters using three methods: documentary analysis, non-participatory observation, and in-depth interviews (secondary data). Results: Ilmu teluh rituals are practiced by numerous protest participants from various groups who believe that Thai society is dominated by a culture of privilege and oppression with a long-standing historical foundation, especially the Thai Royal Institution. These youth protesters perceive their political opponents, whom they label as the conservatives, to be highly credulous and devoted to superstition. As such, they therefore chose to use ilmu teluh as a symbolic tool to challenge their political opponents. Their protests targeted belief systems associated with prominent figures, while attempting to present an invented culture by reenacting rituals claimed to originate from the people instead. The protest rituals involving ilmu teluh were reenactments that did not follow the formal ritualistic principles of any particular belief system or religion, but were instead play-acting which comprises three acts: 1) the speech by protest leaders to clarify the objectives of the demonstration, 2) the role-playing as an artistic ritual to express emotions of resistance, and 3) the burning of effigies or objects as a form of symbolic communication through fire served as a climactic act in the performance. These rituals functioned both as a mechanism for moral healing and as a symbolic violence alternative to physical violence within the youth movements. Application of this study: This research offers a framework for understanding the use of ilmu teluh rituals as a form of symbolic resistance. It serves as an analytical tool for examining youth-led cultural movements and political expressions within the context of an authoritarian society. The study is relevant to scholars, activists, and policymakers seeking to understand movements driven by beliefs. Conclusions: Ilmu teluh rituals in Thai youth protests function as a symbolic expression that integrates political resistance with expressive culture. Through the reinterpretation and reconnection with traditional beliefs, youth protesters can use superstition as a tool for challenging authority, reclaiming public space, and expressing collective frustration. These rituals reflect a shift toward a movement rooted in the people rather than monopolized by the elites.
With the modernization movements that started with the Tanzimat period in Turkey, a rich environment for intellectual debate was formed in which a wide range of scientific, philosophical, social, and political issues were discussed. In this environment, every issue concerning society was discussed by intellectuals and solutions were tried to be found for the social issues that emerged with the change. Mehmet Ali Aynî, who graduated from the modern schools founded with the hope of reforming education in this period and started his career as a bureaucrat, became one of the most important figures of this debate environment in the second phase of his career, when he focused his interest on scientific, philosophical, and social issues. Aynī took a stance within the Islamic tradition against the positivist and materialist influences that emerged with the new developments and changes of his time and tried to support this stance in a unique way with the evidence he cited from the scientific and philosophical developments of the West. One of his primary goals was to protect the culture of society and the beliefs of the individual against these movements, which he considered dangerous, and thus to ensure the continuity of the foundations of social morality. Aynī presents his criticisms against the ideas of atheism, skepticism, and pessimism, which emerged because of positivist and materialist movements, to the reader's attention most prominently through a poem by Tevfik Fikret, one of the most controversial figures of the period, and continues to offer solutions to negative social behaviors such as despair and suicide in his other works. While he draws attention to the unhappiness and suicide caused by disbelief and pessimism, he presents his scientific, philosophical, and moral analysis and criticism by blending the education he received and the culture in which he grew up. One of the pillars of Aynī's intellectual and spiritual world is Islamic culture itself, with which he tries to respond to scientific and philosophical objections to the existence of God. In doing so, Aynī makes many references to modern philosophers such as Spinoza and Bergson, but he also takes the philosophers of the Islamic world, especially the Sufis, as a source of reference. Despite the evidence he brings from both cultures, it is possible to see traces of an agnostic attitude in the conclusion he reaches. Stating that God's existence cannot be fully known, Aynī nevertheless acknowledges that there is evidence for God's existence. His advice to his readers is to live a life of submission in the face of one's shortcomings and troubles by confessing one's lack of knowledge on matters such as God's wisdom and fate. However, this submission should not be understood as a detachment from life. Aynī, who regards existence and life itself as essentially good, expects his readers to adopt the philosophy of optimism as a philosophy of life that is based on a commitment to life and therefore encourages making efforts to make life better. This study examines Aynī's criticisms of the ideas of atheism, skepticism and pessimism that emerged because of positivist and materialist movements and his proposed solutions to these ideas that emphasize that life is a blessing worth living.
The story of a husband who returns home in disguise after a long absence, strings his distinctive bow, punishes his wife’s suitors, and reunites with his family is best known through its earliest recorded version, the Odyssey, and is widely represented in folk traditions throughout the world. A thorough comparative analysis of these tales and research on their historical and cultural background suggests that the original tale could have been transmitted from a place of origin to other parts of the world, giving birth to regional versions, such as Central Asian Alpomish, Japanese Yuriwaka Daijin, and other tales. My research led me to conclude that certain religious practices and population movements were drivers for the dissemination, development, and performance format transformations of this tale-type across the length and breadth of Eurasia. This paper is part of a broader research on the tale-type The Homecoming Husband. It focuses on four stories representing the tale-type in Asia: Alpomish (Central Asia), The Epic of King Gesar (Tibet, Mongolia, etc.), The Song of Chunhyang (Korea), and Yuriwaka Daijin (Japan). In this paper, firstly, I identify major structural elements in each story and analyze how the stories based on the same pattern were narrated across sociocultural and historical contexts. Namely, what social customs, rituals, and beliefs are reflected in each tale, and how these affect the narrative development. Secondly, I discuss the possibility of a historical connection between the Asian Versions of The Homecoming Husband.
Philippine folk dances can be dated back as early as the pre-colonial period which inherited by our forefathers and passed through several generations of Filipinos. These traditional dances are considered treasures of our homeland for they depict the humble beginnings of our native countrymen and serve as a symbol of national identity. The study utilized focused ethnography and was limited on the documentation of the ethnic dance of Ayta Ambala’s tribe, their cultural values along with its cultural heritage situated at Barangay Tubo-Tubo, Dinalupihan, Bataan which were considered unpublished, especially their respective dance patterns or movements. There were ten (10) informants involved in the study. Five (5) were key informants (KIs) who represent the emic perspective while five (5) were general informants (GIs) who represent the etic perspective of the paper. Findings revealed that Dances of Ayta Ambala include: Courtship (Sayaw Magligaw), Ceremonial (Sayaw Talipe), and Occupational (Sayaw Pangangaho). The said dances reflect different activities that are commong among the tribe. It also includes the historical background, costume, time signature, props, structural formation, dance steps, and figures. Although the values are not directly presented, these are still manifesting through the themes of their dances. Included in the cultural values are bravery, respect, and gratitude which are also part of the embodiment of different dances of Ayta Ambala. As observed, the other two emerging themes are also connected to the cultural heritage of Ayta Ambala. This means, their dances mirror their surroundings, their daily activities, and their identity as tribes. The emerging themes on cultural heritage are religious beliefs, courtships, and livelihood.
With Nigerian novelist Amos Tutuola as primary subject, this paper at[1]tempts to understand the construction of sociocultural identities in Nigeria in the wake of independence. Despite the international success of his literary publications, Tutuola was denied access to the most intimate discourses on the development of African literature by his Nigerian elite contemporaries, who emerged from University College, Ibadan, in the 1950s and early 1960s. Having completed only a few years of colonial schooling, Tutuola was differentiated from his elite literary contemporaries in terms of education. Yet if education represented a rather concrete, institutionalized divide between the elite and the everyday Nigerian, this paper will suggest that the resulting epistemological difference served as a more fluid, ideological divide. Both Western epistemology, rooted in Western academic spaces, and African epistemology, preserved from African traditions like proverbs and storytelling, informed the elite and Tutuola’s worldviews. The varying degrees to which one epistemology was privileged over the other reinforced the boundary between Tutuola and the elite. Furthermore, educational experiences and sociocultural identities informed the ways in which independent Nigeria was envisioned by both Tutuola and the elite writers. While the elites’ discourse on independence reflected their proximity to Nigeria’s political elite, Tutuola positioned himself as a distinctly Yoruba writer in the new Nigeria. He envisioned a state in which traditional knowledge remained central to the African identity. Ultimately, his life and work attest to the endurance of indigenous epistemology through years of European colonialism and into independence. 148 Mackenzie Finley During a lecture series at the University of Palermo, Italy, Nigerian novelist Amos Tutuola presented himself, his work, and his Yoruba heritage to an audience of Italian students and professors of English and Anglophone literatures. During his first lecture, the Yoruba elder asked his audience, “Why are we people afraid to go to the burial ground at night?” An audience member ventured a guess: “Perhaps we are afraid to know what we cannot know.” Tutuola replied, “But, you remember, we Africans believe that death is not the end of life. We know that when one dies, that is not the end of his life [. . .] So why are all people afraid to go to the burial ground at night? They’re afraid to meet the ghosts from the dead” (emphasis in original).1 Amos Tutuola (1920–1997) was recognized globally for his perpetuation of Yoruba folklore tradition via novels and short stories written in unconventional English. His works, especially The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952) and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1954), were translated into numerous European languages, including Italian. Given the chance to speak directly with an Italian audience at Palermo, Tutuola elaborated on the elements of Yoruba culture that saturated his fiction. His lectures reflected the same sense of purpose that drove his writing. Tutuola explained, “As much as I could [in my novels], I tried my best to bring out for the people to see the secrets of my tribe—I mean, the Yoruba people—and of Nigerian people, and African people as a whole. I’m trying my best to bring out our traditional things for the people to know a little about us, about our beliefs, our character, and so on.”2 Tutuola’s didactics during the lecture at Palermo reflect his distinct intellectual and cultural commitment to a Yoruba cosmology, one that was not so much learned in his short years of schooling in the colonial education system as it was absorbed from his life of engagement with Yoruba oral tradition. With Tutuola as primary subject, this paper attempts to understand the construction of sociocultural identities in Nigeria in the wake of independence. The educated elite writers, such as Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe, who emerged from University College, Ibadan, during the same time period, will serve as a point of comparison. On October 1, 1960, when Nigeria gained independence from Britain, Tutuola occupied an unusual place relative to the university-educated elite, the semi-literate “average man,” the international 1 Alassandra di Maio, Tutuola at the University: The Italian Voice of a Yoruba Ancestor, with an Interview with the Author and an Afterword by Claudio Gorlier (Rome: Bulzoni, 2000), 38. The lecture’s transcriber utilized graphic devices (italicized and bolded words, brackets denoting pauses and movements) to preserve the dynamic oral experience of the lecture. However, so that the dialogue reads more easily in the context of this paper, I have removed the graphic devices but maintained what the transcriber presented as Tutuola’s emphasized words, simply italicizing what was originally in bold. 2 Di Maio, Tutuola at the University, 148. Constructing Identities 149 stage of literary criticism, and the emerging field of African literature. This position helped shape his sense of identity. Despite the success of his literary publications, Tutuola was not allowed to participate in the most intimate dis[1]courses on the development of African literature by his elite contemporaries. In addition to his lack of access to higher education, Tutuola was differentiated from his elite literary contemporaries on epistemological grounds. If education represented a rather concrete, institutionalized divide between the elite and the everyday Nigerian, an epistemological difference served as a more fluid, ideological divide. Both Western epistemology, rooted in Western academic spaces, and African epistemology, preserved from African traditions like proverbs and storytelling, informed the elite and Tutuola’s worldviews. The varying degrees to which one epistemology was privileged over the other reinforced the boundary between the elite and Tutuola. This paper draws largely on correspondence, conference reports, and the personal papers of Tutuola and his elite contemporaries housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as on interviews transcribed by the Transcription Centre in London, the periodical Africa Report (1960–1970), and Robert M. Wren and Claudio Gorlier, concentrating on primary sources produced during the years immediately prior to and shortly after Nigerian independence in 1960. Tutuola’s ideas generally did not fit into the sociocultural objectives of his elite counterparts. Though they would come in contact with one another via the world of English-language literature, Tutuola usually remained absent from or relegated to the margins of elite discussions on African creative writing. Accordingly, the historical record has less to say about his intellectual ruminations than about those of his elite contemporaries. Nonetheless, his hand-written drafts, interviews, and correspondences with European agents offer a glimpse at the epistemology and sense of identity of an “average” Nigerian in the aftermath of colonialism and independence.
No Other Way Out provides a powerful explanation for the emergence of popular revolutionary movements, and the occurrence of actual revolutions, during the Cold War era. This sweeping study ranges from Southeast Asia in the 1940s and 1950s to Central America in the 1970s and 1980s and Eastern Europe in 1989. Following in the 'state-centered' tradition of Theda Skocpol's States and Social Revolutions and Jack Goldstone's Revolutions and Rebellion in the Early Modern World, Goodwin demonstrates how the actions of specific types of authoritarian regimes unwittingly channeled popular resistance into radical and often violent directions. Revolution became the 'only way out', to use Trotsky's formulation, for the opponents of these intransigent regimes. By comparing the historical trajectories of more than a dozen countries, Goodwin also shows how revolutionaries were sometimes able to create, and not simply exploit, opportunities for seizing state power.
Serge Cassen, Carlos Rodríguez-Rellán, Ramon Fábregas Valcarce
et al.
The history of research on the Neolithic of the Atlantic façade shows how speculation about prehistoric mobility, especially across the sea, is mainly based on three types of archaeological evidence: megalithic monuments, rare stones, and pottery decoration. With the aim of approaching the issue from other perspectives, we have focused on the Morbihan area, a focal point of the European Neolithic during the mid-5th millennium BC. The analysis of this area has allowed us to grasp which objects, ideas and beliefs may have been desired, adopted and imitated at the time. We shall begin with an architectural concept, the standing stone. These were sometimes engraved with signs that can be directly compared between Brittany, Galicia (NW Spain) and Portugal, but for which there are no intermediate parallels in other areas of the French or Spanish coast. The unique accumulation and transformation of polished blades made of Alpine rocks and found inside tombs or in other sort of depositions in the Carnac region allowed us to establish a second link with Galicia and the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula, where certain types of the axes were imitated using a set of different rocks (sillimanite, amphibolite). Finally, the variscites and turquoises from different Spanish regions were used for the manufacture of beads and pendants at the Carnacean tombs, without it being possible – once again – to retrieve similar objects in the intermediate areas. The mastery of
direct Atlantic sea routes is posed as an explanation for this geographical distribution. But, beyond the information drawn from specific artefacts – whose presence/absence should not be used in excess as an argument to endorse or underrate such movements across the ocean – we will return to a more poetic and universal phenomenon: the spell of the sea. Therefore, we will focus on the depictions of boats on the stelae of Morbihan to open such a debate.
As a woman who believes whole-heartedly in the human right to safe and legal access to abortion regardless of circumstance, it is rare I find myself balking at a movement to extend legal access to abortion. However, in the case of Brazil’s Zika epidemic, I am struck by an ethical dilemma. Brazil, a historically pro-life country, is currently considering reforming their anti-abortion laws exclusively in cases of fetal defects caused by Zika infection.[1] I strongly believe reproductive rights are human rights, however, if the only exceptions made in allowing safe and legal access to abortion are in cases of a disabled fetus, we as ethicists must pause. The fact that in Brazil, a country with a strong moral and legal belief in fetal personhood, lawmakers are willing to abandon this belief solely in cases of the physically and intellectually disabled presents dangerous infringements on disabled individuals’ rights. Furthermore, advocating for legal abortion solely in the case of fetal disability is ethically wrong and has historically eugenic undertones. As a pro-choice individual, it is essential to consider the ethical concerns that exist even in movements advocating for anti-abortion law reform.
Brazil, a predominately Roman Catholic country, has maintained historically restrictive abortion laws. It is a foundational belief of the Catholic Church that life begins at conception and therefore the termination of pregnancy is akin to murder.[2] Thus, obtaining an illegal abortion is a crime punishable by up to three years imprisonment.[3] Up until 2012, abortion was prohibited unless the pregnancy posed a significant risk to the woman’s life, or the pregnancy in question resulted from rape. However, in 2012 the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil ruled to legalize abortion in the case of fetal anencephaly.[4] Notably, the Brazilian Supreme Court was able to make this decision by intentionally skirting the Catholic belief in fetal personhood. Since anencephaly leads to death immediately following birth, the court argued that in cases of anencephalic fetuses, abortion did not violate Catholic beliefs since anencephalic infants were not living persons.[5]
In the current era of the Zika epidemic, which has affected Brazil significantly, Brazilian lawmakers and advocates are fighting to amend these restrictive abortion laws. This is due to the fact that Zika viral infection in pregnant women has been linked to fetal microcephaly and other significant birth defects characterized as Congenital Zika Syndrome.[6] As a result of these findings, advocates have argued to extend legal abortion status to pregnant women infected with Zika as a legal way to terminate fetuses that will likely result in permanently disabled infants. It is important to note the differences between microcephaly -- Congenital Zika Syndrome -- and the current exception to Brazilian abortion law, anencephaly. Infants born with anencephaly typically die within the first hours or day of birth, whereas in the case of microcephaly, diagnosed individuals can live up to 35 years and longer depending on the severity of the disease.[7] Therefore, the issue of personhood is not so easily skirted legally and morally in Brazil. Advocates for legal abortion in cases of Zika infection argue that women should have the right to terminate a pregnancy that will likely result in an infant with severe birth deformities and disabilities. However, in a country that strongly adheres to the Catholic belief that life begins at conception, it is imperative to consider what the ethical implications are on the rights of disabled individuals by making selective abortion law exceptions in cases of microcephaly.
I recognize that raising any infant, but specifically a disabled infant is costly, both for the parents and for the state. Additionally, reproductive freedoms are particularly limited to women of low socioeconomic standing. Therefore, I do not mean to convey that abortion should not be allowed in cases of disability, or that abortion in cases of disability are always eugenic in nature. On the contrary, pregnant women should be able to weigh the pros and cons, economically and emotionally, before deciding to give birth to an infant. I also believe women should be allowed to abort a fetus under any circumstances without judgment. However, when the state makes exceptions exclusively in cases of disability, it poses numerous ethical concerns.
There is a long and complicated global history between the movement for reproductive freedoms and disability rights movements. For example, in the United States, Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood, an organization essential to providing safe and affordable reproductive healthcare, including abortions, on the principles of the eugenics movement.[8] Although it is likely Sanger aligned herself with the mainstream eugenics movement of her time as a strategic way to broaden her message of a woman’s right to reproductive freedom, the unfortunate association remains historically documented. Sanger is famously quoted as saying in 1921 that “the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.”[9] Even feminists and strong reproductive rights supporters must recognize the eugenic potential of extending these rights only in specific circumstances. In a country like Brazil, where life is believed to begin at conception and abortion is criminalized with little exception, it should raise ethical questions when exceptions are being made for disabled fetuses. Additionally, these laws surrounding abortion present larger ethical issues that extend beyond reproductive rights. For example, if disabled fetuses are deemed specifically disposable simply for their disability, what does this potentially suggest for the disabled community of Brazil at large? This ethical framework could provide a precedent that works to justify the limitations of the rights of the disabled.
All this being said, I do not believe reproductive rights and the rights of disabled individuals are inherently at odds with one another. On the contrary, I believe there are important connections between the limitation of women’s reproductive freedom and the oppression of disabled individuals, including intersecting class and race oppressions. Perhaps the most famous example of this in the United States is the case of Buck v. Bell of 1927. Under the mainstream eugenics movement, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of allowing forced sterilization of women who were deemed intellectually or physically unfit. In this case, disabled women’s bodies were forcibly sterilized without their consent by the state to promote a eugenic and able-ist agenda.[10] Similarly, there is a long history in Brazil of sterilizing women with HIV often under dubious consent.[11] Although sterilization is a common form of birth control for Brazilian women due to stringent anti-abortion laws, there are considerably higher rates of sterilization in populations of indigenous and Brazilians of afro-descent, strongly suggesting racial prejudice in these practices.[12]
Reproductive rights and disability rights are not inherently in conflict. However, when access to abortion is morally and legally restricted, as in Brazil, making exceptions only in the case of disabled fetuses is ethically wrong. In a country where life is believed to begin at conception, abortion law exceptions in the case of Zika strongly suggests and justifies the idea that disabled individuals are valued less by society. Furthermore, it also perpetuates historical eugenic beliefs that have advocated for genocide. This is not to say I believe Brazil should not work towards wide-ranging abortion law reform. On the contrary, I believe it is imperative that women in Brazil and across the world are granted holistic and unrestricted reproductive freedoms to make their own choices regarding childbirth regardless of their circumstances. There is an ethical responsibility that women should be allowed safe, legal, and affordable abortions whenever needed and/or wanted including in cases of fetal disability if the pregnant woman so chooses. However, I do not believe that legal abortion should be exclusively granted solely in cases of fetal disability. Granting legal abortion specifically in cases of fetal disability but not in other circumstances (besides rape and risk to maternal health) presents dangerous ethical implications that disabled populations are worth less than their fellow able-bodied citizens.
Works Cited
[1] Boseley, Sarah. "Zika Emergency Pushes Women to Challenge Brazil's Abortion Law." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 19 July 2016. Web. 03 July 2017.
[2] Catechism of the Catholic Church - IntraText. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 July 2017.
[3] Human Rights Watch: Women's Human Rights: Abortion. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 July 2017.
[4] Ray, Audacia. "Brazil: Supreme Court Makes Abortion Legal in Cases of Anencephaly." International Women's Health Coalition. N.p., 21 Nov. 2013. Web. 03 July 2017.
[5] Luna, Naara. "Anencephalic Fetuses and Research Embryos: Subjects of Rights?" Estudos Feministas. Revista Estudos Feministas, n.d. Web. 03 July 2017.
[6] "Zika Virus." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 26 Apr. 2017. Web. 03 July 2017.
[7] "Microcephaly – Life Expectancy, Pictures, Definition, Treatment." Medical Treasure. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 July 2017
[8] "Margaret Sanger, Race and Eugenics: A Complicated History." Time. Time, n.d. Web. 03 July 2017.
[9] "The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda." The Public Papers of Margaret Sanger: Web Edition. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 July 2017.
[10] Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927)
[11] "HIV-positive Women in Northeast Brazil: Tubal Sterilization, Medical Recommendation and Reproductive Rights." Taylor & Francis. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 July 2017
[12] Sterilization in Brazil. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 July 2017.
The School of Scottish Studies (the ‘School’) was inaugurated on 31 January 1951 as a semiautonomous institution within the University of Edinburgh, with the broad aim of studying ‘Scottish traditional life in its European setting, on lines similar to those developed in several Scandinavian institutes and, more recently, in Ireland and Wales’.