{"id":418,"date":"2026-05-15T14:18:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T18:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/?p=418"},"modified":"2026-05-17T16:59:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T20:59:04","slug":"cognitive-bias-about-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/2026\/05\/15\/cognitive-bias-about-danger\/","title":{"rendered":"Cognitive Bias about Danger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Mass Formation” is an idea proposed by Belgian psychologist Mattias Desmet. He gained worldwide recognition toward the end of 2021 when he presented the concept as an explanation for some irrational behavior with regard to the COVID pandemic and its countermeasures.  “In the beginning of the Corona crisis, back in February 2020, I started to study the statistics on the mortality rates of the virus, the infection fatality rates, the case fatality rate and so on, and immediately, I got the impression that the statistics and mathematical models used had dramatically overrated the danger of the virus,” Desmet said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    He noticed that people simply didn’t want to know about the inaccuracies being promoted.  He said it was as if they refused to see even the most blatant errors in the statistics being used.  He decided to focus on the psychological mechanisms at play in the mind, and he became convinced that most people were made radically blind to everything that goes against the narrative they now believed in.  They basically became incapable of distancing themselves from their beliefs, and therefore couldn’t take in or evaluate new data.  The axiom “convince a man against his will, he’s of the same opinion still” seems applicable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A  recognizable characteristic of mass formation is that once people are in the grip of it, they typically show a tendency of cruelty toward people who do not buy into the narrative or submit to it.  They typically do so as if it were an ethical duty.  Could this be why people not wearing masks were physically assaulted during the pandemic?  Once “hypnotized” by a narrative, some will stigmatize non-believers, then attempt to destroy those who do not go along with the masses.  People can be killed for not wearing a mask, and the hypnotized won’t raise an eyebrow.  Children can die from starvation and friends can commit suicide from financial desperation, yet none of it will have a psychological impact on the hypnotized because, to them, the plight of others doesn’t register.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A perfect example of this psychological blinding to reality is how COVID jab deaths and injuries are simply unrecognized.  People will get the vaccine, suffer massive injuries, and convince themselves how lucky they are because it could have been much worse if they hadn’t received the shot.  They cannot conceive of the possibility that they were injured by the shot.  Some have expressed gratitude for the shot, even after someone they loved died within hours or days of getting it.  Only the psychological dynamics of hypnosis can explain this irrational and otherwise incomprehensible behavior.Here<\/a> is a 15-minute video interview of Prof. Desmet in which he summarizes his views.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “Mass Formation” is an idea proposed by Belgian psychologist Mattias Desmet. He gained worldwide recognition toward the end of 2021 when he presented the concept as an explanation for some irrational behavior with regard to the COVID pandemic and its … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tca"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcjttF-6K","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":375,"url":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/2025\/03\/10\/an-example-of-limits-on-test-validity\/","url_meta":{"origin":418,"position":0},"title":"An Example of Limits on Test Validity","author":"dbernstein","date":"March 10, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"An article found here provides a good example of how a test can be valid for one purpose but invalid for another. 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This correlation did not reach statistical significance for women. Speculating on the basis for this association, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Research Methods & Statistics"","block_context":{"text":"Research Methods & Statistics","link":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/category\/rmstats\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":160,"url":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/2020\/09\/14\/mindfulness-based-cognitive-therapy\/","url_meta":{"origin":418,"position":3},"title":"Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy","author":"dbernstein","date":"September 14, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A 9-minute video summarizes the goals of mindfulness cognitive therapy and then, at about the 3-minute mark, asks the viewer to engage in an exercise in which they use mindfulness-based methods to deal with worry about current events (it was shot during the COVID-19 pandemic). This exercise might help your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Treatment of Psychological Disorders"","block_context":{"text":"Treatment of Psychological Disorders","link":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/category\/treatment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":416,"url":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/2026\/05\/15\/dont-overthink-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":418,"position":4},"title":"Don’t Overthink It!","author":"dbernstein","date":"May 15, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A news story found here describes \u201cthe twisties,\u201d a condition in which gymnasts--including U.S. Olympian Simone Biles--who have overlearned routines to the point that they become automatic begin to think too much about how they perform these routines and as a result these thoughts interfere with the automatic performance. 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