Why People Believe Weird Things
E201270
Why People Believe Weird Things is a popular science book by Michael Shermer that explores the psychological and sociological reasons people accept pseudoscience, superstition, and irrational beliefs.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Why People Believe Weird Things canonical | 4 |
| Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1796466 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Why People Believe Weird Things Context triple: [Michael Shermer, notableWork, Why People Believe Weird Things]
-
A.
Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions
Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions is a skeptical book by magician and debunker James Randi that critically examines and exposes claims of the paranormal, pseudoscience, and superstition.
-
B.
The Demon-Haunted World
The Demon-Haunted World is a popular science book by Carl Sagan that champions critical thinking and the scientific method as antidotes to superstition and pseudoscience.
-
C.
Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
"Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters" is a non-fiction book by cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker that explores the nature of human reasoning, why people often think irrationally, and how better reasoning can improve individual and societal decision-making.
-
D.
The Great Political Superstition
"The Great Political Superstition" is an essay by Herbert Spencer that critiques blind faith in governmental authority and challenges the belief that the state is inherently a force for good.
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E.
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science is a classic skeptical book by Martin Gardner that critically examines pseudoscience, fringe theories, and popular scientific misconceptions.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Why People Believe Weird Things Target entity description: Why People Believe Weird Things is a popular science book by Michael Shermer that explores the psychological and sociological reasons people accept pseudoscience, superstition, and irrational beliefs.
-
A.
Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions
Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions is a skeptical book by magician and debunker James Randi that critically examines and exposes claims of the paranormal, pseudoscience, and superstition.
-
B.
The Demon-Haunted World
The Demon-Haunted World is a popular science book by Carl Sagan that champions critical thinking and the scientific method as antidotes to superstition and pseudoscience.
-
C.
Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
"Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters" is a non-fiction book by cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker that explores the nature of human reasoning, why people often think irrationally, and how better reasoning can improve individual and societal decision-making.
-
D.
The Great Political Superstition
"The Great Political Superstition" is an essay by Herbert Spencer that critiques blind faith in governmental authority and challenges the belief that the state is inherently a force for good.
-
E.
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science is a classic skeptical book by Martin Gardner that critically examines pseudoscience, fringe theories, and popular scientific misconceptions.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
non-fiction book ⓘ popular science book ⓘ |
| advocates |
rational thinking
ⓘ
scientific method ⓘ Skeptical Inquirer ⓘ
surface form:
skeptical inquiry
|
| author | Michael Shermer ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| criticizes |
Holocaust denial
ⓘ
New Age beliefs ⓘ UFO abductions claims ⓘ astrology ⓘ creationism ⓘ |
| describedAs | accessible introduction to skeptical thinking ⓘ |
| explores |
agenticity
ⓘ
confirmation bias ⓘ patternicity ⓘ psychological reasons for belief in pseudoscience ⓘ role of cognitive biases in belief ⓘ role of memory and perception errors ⓘ social influences on belief ⓘ sociological reasons for belief in pseudoscience ⓘ |
| genre |
popular science
ⓘ
psychology ⓘ skeptic literature ⓘ |
| hasEdition |
Why People Believe Weird Things
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time
|
| hasInfluenced | modern skeptic movement ⓘ |
| hasPart |
chapters on historical denialism
ⓘ
chapters on pseudoscience ⓘ chapters on religion and belief ⓘ |
| hasSequel |
How We Believe
ⓘ
Why Darwin Matters ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
belief formation
ⓘ
cognitive biases ⓘ critical thinking ⓘ irrational beliefs ⓘ pseudoscience ⓘ scientific skepticism ⓘ superstition ⓘ |
| notableFor |
analysis of why intelligent people hold irrational beliefs
ⓘ
popularizing scientific skepticism ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1997 ⓘ |
| publisher | W. H. Freeman and Company ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
general readers
ⓘ
skeptics ⓘ students of psychology and science ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Why People Believe Weird Things Description of subject: Why People Believe Weird Things is a popular science book by Michael Shermer that explores the psychological and sociological reasons people accept pseudoscience, superstition, and irrational beliefs.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Michael Shermer
Why People Believe Weird Things
→
hasEdition
→
Why People Believe Weird Things
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time