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September 20th, 2018 7:55 AM

CONFLATION. WE CAN’T HELP IT. HENCE OPERATIONALISM.

—“Ontological confusions:

Both children and adults tend to confuse aspects of reality

(i.e., â??core knowledge”) in systematic ways (Lindeman,

Svedholm-Hakkinen & Lipsanen, 2015). Any category mistake

involving property differences between animate and

inanimate or mental and physical, as examples, constitutes

an ontological confusion. Consider the belief that prayers

have the capacity to heal (i.e., spiritual healing). Such

beliefs are taken to result from conflation of mental phenomenon,which are subjective and immaterial, and physicalphenomenon, which are objective and material (Lindeman,Svedholm-Hakkinen & Lipsanen, 2015). On a dual-processview, ontological confusions constitute a failure to reflecton and inhibit such intuitive ontological confusions (Svedholm& Lindeman, 2013). Ontological confusions may also be supported by a bias toward believing the literal truth of

statements. Thus, ontological confusions are conceptually

related to both detection and response bias as mechanisms

that may underlie bullshit receptivity. As such, the propensity

to endorse ontological confusions should be linked to

higher levels of bullshit receptivity.”—