Belief is the natural state of things, as our inner belief engine tries to seek patterns and make connections. Disbelief is uncomfortable. Patternicity: The tendency to find meaningful patterns where ...

Why do people see faces in nature, interpret window stains as human figures, hear voices in random sounds generated by electronic devices or find conspiracies in the daily news? A proximate cause is ...

Two long-standing observations about human cognitive behaviour provide Michael Shermer with the fundamentals of his account of how people form beliefs. One is the brain's readiness to perceive ...