Why We Still Believe Everything People Tell Us: we're Gullible.

People will believe anything these days. Did you know, for example, that you eat an average of eight spiders a year while asleep, as you sleep with your mouth open and some arachnids, desperate for an entry in the spider's version of "Explorer", wiggle their way down your gullet? I'm willing to bet you already know this fact. However, the best thing about this fact is not the fact that you're inadvertently consuming Charlotte while you drool over your pillow, but that it is complete nonsense.

No, really, it was totally made up. A Journalist for PC Professional called Linda Holst created this whopper, along with a few more, and sent them out in an experiment to see how gullible people were. Clearly the answer was "very". I mean, with just a little thought, this idea is clearly not true. I mean, why would a spider, something naturally fearful of those giants known as humans, suddenly decide to explore your mouth when you're snoring? And not just one, but eight a year? That's 300,000,000 spiders a year consumed in the UK alone!

Anyone who's been on Facebook over the last week will have also noticed another one of these "I saw it on the Interweb so it must be true" cases. Somehow, a worldwide campaign kicked off on the social networking site whereby people changed their profile picture to a cartoon character. The idea was that it would highlight child abuse and create "a sea of memories, not faces". Ignoring the few comedians who opted for the cartoon of Homer Simpson strangling Bart, it was a massive success: I only had a small handful on my profile who didn't take part. However, the proceedings were scuppered on the last day by people claiming, through that authoritative medium known as the "status update", that it was actually an effort by paedophiles to convince young children to accept their friend requests and they could then access their pictures. Oh, people were howling about how everyone must take down their pictures to stop this. It was even on the news, they assured me.

The problem with this is that it is clearly the most bizarre suggestion I have heard in a while. I mean, think about it: if a gang of child abusers wanted to get access to some pictures, I'm sure they could think of a method that would be far easier than orchestrating a world-wide campaign to get everyone, young and old alike, to change their profile pictures in the hope that someone will actually accept their request, and that is ignoring the fact that by getting everyone to change their picture to a cartoon removes the one thing that will identify someone as a young person: their picture! Despite this being an obvious howler, the vast majority of people I know took it as gospel and screamed about it on their profiles. I even asked people what channel this news report was on, only to be met with the response of "well... I didn't see it but my mate told me it was on the news". Upon investigation, they then discovered that their friend didn't actually see it either, but it must be true as their friend told them they saw it... they think.

Oh, dear!

All of this falls into that lovely category of "common knowledge"; where people believe something for no reason other than "my friend told me" or "I read it in a chain email". Our sister company, Low Cost PR, covered this issue before in their blog. I'd like to call it "funny", but it is instead concerning. This example of human gullibility took a slightly more sinister turn a year ago when an innocent man in Liverpool was alleged to be John Thompson, one of the killers of Jamie Bulger. Despite the obvious clues that he was not Thompson, like the fact that Thompson was in Jail and this man was not, people believed it and he was forced to flee for his life.

Those in the business world will be familiar with this concept. A salesman tells you that this new product will make your life fantastic, make you more attractive, make you a millionaire and wash the dishes, all at the same time. When you get it home, you realise that it is just a lie. Don't laugh, people still fall for it.

So what I'm trying to say is, please take even a few seconds to think about what people tell you. There are two categories of people: Gullible people, and those who laugh at gullible people. Which one will you be in.

p.s. on a side note, there's also three kinds of people: those who are good at maths, and those who aren't.

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