Popular Delusions

Figure 1. Popular Delusions Gartner Hype Cycle

Figure 2. Night Wind Hawkers sold stock on the streets during the South Sea Bubble. (The Great Picture of Folly, 1720)

Popular delusions are ideas or cultural fads that become transiently, intensely popular in a given society. They are characterised by their rapid transmissibility and fickle nature (see Figure 1). Historically, in their hype phase, these delusions have caused frantic activity of people such as the South Sea Bubble, Tulip Mania or Witch Mania. Today popular delusions have become ever more transmissible through the use of social media and the advertising industry.

Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary psychology would infer that any human characteristic brought about by evolutionary change should cause an increase in fitness, it is a wonder therefore how then delusions often hold negative connotations that they arise. One rationale is the energy frugal brain making shortcuts (heuristics) to save energy. In modern times, the issue that arises here is that these heuristics were made for another time. I.e. all fatty foods taste nice to humans as starvation was prevalent, similarly on the next level computational non-critical thought was prevalent until the creation of information junk food like Candy Crush.

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