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Earned Dogmatism Hypothesis

PostPosted: 30 Jun 2019
by ex-l
Self-proclaimed supreme and global Masters of the Ocean of Knowledge™, the Brahma Kumaris might do well to consider the 'Earned Dogmatism Hypothesis' [Ottati, Price, Wilson, and Sumaktoyo (2015)].

The Earned Dogmatism Hypothesis is that social norms entitle so called experts to behave in a closed-minded fashion, and therefore that mental manipulations that increase perceived expertise reduce open-minded cognition.

Presumably believing yourself to be a "Brahmin", indeed the only true Brahmins, works in the same way at a low level in Hinduism?

Brahma Kumarism is highly closed-minded and dogmatic. They are right, the rest of the world is wrong. There is no questioning about their beliefs, indeed thinking and questioning are discouraged, as the source of their Knowledge™ and rightness comes from [their] god, therefore it is unquestionable.

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Much of the activity of BKism then becomes a mental manipulation of others, in order that they accept their worldview and authority and cooperate with them, or at the very least not oppose them, and the creation of strategies to dismiss, discredit and deconstruct other world views.

Unlike the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, in the real world, when an academic has an idea or realisation, they have to test it to see if it is true and works, see Direct replications of Ottati et al. (2015): The earned dogmatism effect occurs only with some manipulations of expertise.

Other related concepts are,
    a) the “illusion of explanatory depth”, where we confuse a shallow familiarity with general concepts for real, in-depth knowledge.

    b) “motivated reasoning", where studies have shown that people fail to notice the logical fallacies in an argument if the conclusion supports their viewpoint, however, if they are shown contrary evidence, they will be far more critical of the tiniest hole in the argument.
Dangerous for the so called elders of the BK cult, it has also been shown that "humans tend to confuse their current level of understanding with their peak knowledge”.

Proof that as we get older, we not only often become stupidier but more closed-minded and dogmatic.

The hypothesis appears to be good.

Re: Earned Dogmatism Hypothesis

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2019
by GuptaRati 6666
Ex-I, Thank you for the very interesting post. I have read the abstract of the paper published by Ottati et al.(2015). I will read the whole paper. It is almost 5 years since the paper was published and it will be interesting to observe how many other investigators have tested the hypothesis. With increased testing the validity of the hypothesis can increase, though it may require 100 years plus before it becomes a theory and/or law, principle. It does have validity when applied to BKism and similar cults.

Many experts, in and outside of academia, guard themselves against narrow mindedness, by maintaining an open mind, encouraging debates on their hypotheses, and where possible replacing and/or modifying hypotheses. Some expert can be inflexible and become dinosaurs in museums. Some experts before they become intellectual fossilized museum exhibits would have spent their lives trying to suppress the upward mobility of younger experts who are more dynamic and open minded.

Top brass BKs 40 years ago tried to discourage younger dynamic BKs from pursuing academic studies or professional development. Ideas from the scientific community, which challenged BK dogma were dismissed and are still are as Kal Yugi and degrading.

One idea is the greater quality of life of couples compared to single individuals.