{"id":1671,"date":"2014-10-02T15:07:03","date_gmt":"2014-10-02T23:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/?p=1671"},"modified":"2024-11-14T09:08:42","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T17:08:42","slug":"can-anything-true-want-believe-bad-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/can-anything-true-want-believe-bad-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Willing To Believe?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"TweetButton_button\" style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  data-url=\"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/can-anything-true-want-believe-bad-enough\/\" data-text=\"Are You Willing To Believe%3f\" data-lang=\"en\">Tweet<\/a><br \/>\n<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,\"script\",\"twitter-wjs\");<\/script><\/div>\n<p>If someone told you that simply wearing a certain&#8230;umm&#8230;undergarment for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week for 28 days would shrink your hips and thighs reduce cellulite, would you believe it? \u00a0Some people would or those undergarments would not be for sale. \u00a0And they are for sale.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Revolutionary<\/em> I-Pants, infused with micro-encapsulated &#8220;active ingredients&#8221;: \u00a0caffeine, retinol, ceramides. vitamin E, fatty acids and Aloe Vera are available at various outlets. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/2014\/10\/caffeinated-underpants-wont-make-your-butt-smaller\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">However, Norm Thompson Outfitters and Wacoal America have been enjoined from making weight loss claims by the FTC.<\/a> \u00a0I haven&#8217;t read through the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/news-events\/press-releases\/2014\/09\/norm-thompson-outfitters-wacoal-america-settle-ftc-charges-over?utm_source=govdelivery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FTC complaint<\/a>, but I&#8217;m sure their reasoning was something along the lines of the weight loss claims being &#8220;utter nonsense&#8221;. \u00a0Or perhaps they used another more colorful euphemism for male bovine digestive excretion.<\/p>\n<p>The purpose of this post isn&#8217;t to bash stupid products sold with ridiculous and obviously false marketing claims. \u00a0It&#8217;s more about wondering why those ridiculous and obviously false marketing claims work. \u00a0I&#8217;m pretty sure everyone knows that wearing caffeinated underpants will not shrink your butt. \u00a0But some people are willing to believe it. \u00a0Why is that? \u00a0Is it simply a case of &#8220;desperate times call for desperate measures&#8221;? \u00a0I would wager that there are some I-Pant owners whose posterior girth would not warrant that degree of desperation.<\/p>\n<p>What started my mind wandering down this road (besides coming across the article about I-Pants) were some thoughts I was having about <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Empiricism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Empiricism<\/a>, which is a theory that knowledge can only come from sensory experience or evidence. \u00a0Something else altogether got me thinking about Empiricism. \u00a0But I digress. \u00a0Certain companies may (and do) use ridiculous and false marketing claims to sell bad products because they know it works. \u00a0They have evidence of it. \u00a0They have reason to believe it. \u00a0Consumers, on the other hand, have no reason to believe the marketing claims. \u00a0They&#8217;ve seen no evidence. \u00a0They have only a desire to believe the claims. \u00a0They have reason to suspend their disbelief &#8211; no &#8211; they have desire to suspend their disbelief. \u00a0Had they reason, their disbelief woud remain intact.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re willing to believe. \u00a0We want to believe. \u00a0So there it is (again) &#8211; desire. \u00a0Getting us into trouble. \u00a0Making us think that purchasing the <em>Revolutionary<\/em> I-Pant is a good idea. \u00a0Or taking us down some similar crooked path. \u00a0While cold reason quietly takes a back seat awaiting the empirical data and the opportunity to say (again) Told You So!<\/p>\n<p>If we want something bad enough, we&#8217;re willing to believe almost anything. \u00a0Does believing it make it true? \u00a0I dunno. \u00a0I&#8217;m still waitin&#8217; on the data&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tweet If someone told you that simply wearing a certain&#8230;umm&#8230;undergarment for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week for 28 days would shrink your hips and thighs reduce cellulite, would you believe it? \u00a0Some people would or those undergarments would not be for sale&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1671"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2426,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions\/2426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}