UnSpun Precis

Chapter 3-4
Brandy Resa
July 13, 2008

Ch3 & 4

1.       Ch3 “Tall” coffees and assault weapons

a.       “Tall” coffees and assault weapons

                                                   i.      Things aren’t what they seem (large olives medium sized)

                                                 ii.      Deceptions are commonplace

b.       Trick 1: Misnomers

                                                   i.      “Assault Weapon Ban” banned only certain semiauto weapons

                                                 ii.      Olives = small, medium, large, xL, colossal, super colossal. Large is not the largest.

                                                iii.      Starbucks “large” doesn’t exist

                                                iv.      Smoke Away dietary supplement

                                                  v.      Don’t assume from the name it is what it is

c.       Trick 2: Frame it and Claim it

                                                   i.      Estate tax / Death Tax

                                                 ii.      Bush’s Social Security plan, “privatize” SS

                                                iii.      Don’t’ just by product name

d.       Trick 3: Weasel Words

                                                   i.      “up to” fifty percent off

                                                 ii.      PCH “you may already be a winner”

                                                iii.      Journalists “write around it”

e.       Trick 4: Eye Candy

                                                   i.      Pictures on TV different than what is said

                                                 ii.      We remember what we see better than what we hear

f.         Trick 5: The average bear

                                                   i.      Median averages are used

                                                 ii.      Average is not “typical”

g.       Trick 6: The baseline bluff

                                                   i.      Differences in planned spending increases referred to as “cuts”, Tories vs. Labor (UK)

                                                 ii.      Dole vs Clinton Medicare “cut”

                                                iii.      Bush vs. Kerry SS “cuts”

h.       Trick 7: The literally true falsehood

                                                   i.      Words chosen to be deceptive, not fully false

                                                 ii.      Clinton Lewinsky “is no sex…”, was found to be “intentionally false” testimony

                                                iii.      “reduced fat” KFC

                                                iv.      “low sodium”, Lean Cuisine

                                                  v.      No foreign leaders ever assassinated by CIA, but attempts were made

                                                vi.      Always ask what is really being said

i.         Trick 9: Implied falsehood

                                                   i.      War on Iraq, Americans thought Hussein was behind 9/11

                                                 ii.      AbForce belt

2.       Ch 4: UFO Cults and Us

a.       Human brains not wired to think rationally

b.       Keech and cult, UFO

c.       The moonbat effect

                                                   i.      Truthout.org

                                                 ii.      “barking moonbats” sacrifice sanity for the sake of consistency, Adriana Cronin Lukas

d.       Psychology of Deception

                                                   i.      Humans not rational fact-driven

                                                 ii.      Humans tend to seek out weak evidence to support existing beliefs

e.       Pictures in our Heads trap

                                                   i.      Political stereotypes

                                                 ii.      Difficult to avoid mental shortcuts

f.         Root for my side trap

                                                   i.      Albert Hastorf 1954, Dartmouth football game

                                                 ii.      Hostile Media phenomenon” chooses a side with violence

                                                iii.      “myside bias”

g.       I know I’m right trap. The need to be right even though we are not informed.

h.       Close call trap

                                                   i.      Spreading of alternatives

                                                 ii.      Allowing people exception (Xerox copy line cuts) for “reason”

                                                iii.      “because” leaves us in a state of mindlessness

                                                iv.      Are there facts we haven’t looked for?

                                                  v.      Be aware of our own psych